Green Car Congresstag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-318292017-12-13T15:02:57Z
Technologies, issues and policies for sustainable mobility.TypePadSubscribe with My Yahoo!Subscribe with NewsGatorSubscribe with My AOLSubscribe with BloglinesSubscribe with NetvibesSubscribe with GoogleSubscribe with PageflakesSubscribe with PlusmoSubscribe with The Free DictionarySubscribe with Bitty BrowserSubscribe with Live.comSubscribe with Excite MIXSubscribe with WebwagSubscribe with Podcast ReadySubscribe with WikioSubscribe with Daily RotationCummins Westport receives 2018 emissions certifications for L9N and B6.7N low NOx natural gas enginestag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b8d2c6fc45970c2017-12-13T07:02:57-08:002017-12-13T15:02:57ZCummins Westport Inc. has received certifications from both the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Air Resources Board (ARB) in California for its 2018 L9N and B6.7N natural gas engines. Both engines meet California ARB optional Low NOx standards, as...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>
Cummins Westport Inc. has <a href="http://wfsinc.com/news-releases/2017/cummins-westport-receives-2018-emissions-certifications-for-l9n-and-b6.7n-natural-gas-engines">received</a> certifications from both the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Air Resources Board (ARB) in California for its 2018 L9N and B6.7N natural gas engines. Both engines meet California ARB optional Low NO<sub>x</sub> standards, as well as 2017 EPA greenhouse gas emission (GHG) requirements, making them some of the cleanest engines available today for truck and bus customers.
</p>
<p>
The L9N is certified to California ARB optional Low NO<sub>x</sub> standard of 0.02 g/bhp-hr&mdash;a 90% reduction from engines operating at the current EPA NO<sub>x</sub> limit of 0.2 g/bhp-hr. The L9N offers ratings from 250 – 320 hp and 1,000 lb-ft (1,356 N&middot;m) peak torque, making it suitable for transit, shuttle and school bus, as well as medium-duty truck and refuse applications.
</p>
<p>
The B6.7N is certified to California ARB optional Low NO<sub>x</sub> standard of 0.1 g/bhp-hr&mdash;a 50% reduction from current EPA levels. Available with ratings from 200 – 240 hp and 560 lb-ft (759 N&middot;m) peak torque, the B6.7N is suited for school bus, shuttle, and medium-duty truck applications.
</p>
<p>
Based on the ISL G and ISB6.7 G natural gas engines, the 2018 L9N and B6.7N build on the experience gained from more than 80,000 Cummins Westport engines currently in service and provide a present-day solution to urban air quality issues. In addition to ultra low emissions, the L9N and B6.7N feature a new engine control module with improved durability, on-board diagnostic (OBD) capability, an enhanced maintenance-free three-way catalyst, and a closed crankcase ventilation system.
</p>
<p>
All CWI engines offer customers the choice of using compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied natural gas (LNG), or renewable natural gas (RNG) as a fuel. RNG is pipeline-quality natural gas produced from the decomposition of organic waste, which can come from a variety of sources such as dairy farms, landfills, and urban waste treatment plants. Combining Cummins Westport’s ultra low emission engines with RNG fuel provides additional and significant GHG reductions.
</p>
<p>
For 2018, the L9N and B6.7N will be available as a first-fit option from leading bus and truck manufacturers. Cummins Westport will also introduce the ISX12N natural gas engine as a first-fit option, which like the L9N, will meet the Optional Low NO<sub>x</sub> emissions level of 0.02 g/bhp-hr. With 400 hp / 1,450 lb-ft (1,966 N&middot;m) torque, the ISX12N is well suited for heavy-duty regional-haul truck/tractor, vocational, and refuse applications.</p>
<p>Production of all three engines will begin in the first quarter of 2018.
</p>
<p>
CWI acknowledges engine development funding support from the Gas Technology Institute, South Coast Air Quality Management District, SoCalGas, and the California Energy Commission.
</p>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=oY_54VDWaQo:Mh-bFm8myCU:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/oY_54VDWaQo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171213-cwi.htmlGE Aviation testing 100% Gevo Alcohol-to-Jet fueltag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01bb09df8c2f970d2017-12-13T03:00:00-08:002017-12-13T14:50:36ZGE Aviation has begun jet engine combustor component testing with 100% Gevo renewable alcohol-to-jet fuel (ATJ). The testing is being performed as part of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Continuous Lower Energy, Emissions and Noise Program (CLEEN). CLEEN is the...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>GE Aviation has <a href="http://ir.gevo.com/mobile.view?c=238618&v=203&d=1&id=2322087">begun</a> jet engine combustor component testing with 100% Gevo renewable alcohol-to-jet fuel (ATJ). The testing is being performed as part of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Continuous Lower Energy, Emissions and Noise Program (CLEEN). CLEEN is the FAA’s principal environmental effort to accelerate the development of new aircraft, engine technologies, and to advance sustainable alternative jet fuels, in conjunction with aviation industry leaders such as GE Aviation.</p>
<p>Specifically, this testing is designed to enable the greater displacement of petroleum-based jet fuel by bio-based alternative products. Bio-based hydrocarbon fuels have similar performance characteristics to the petroleum-based fuels used today, albeit with reductions in particulate matter and other air quality related emissions. Some bio-based jet fuels, such as Gevo’s ATJ, have the potential to improve performance, such as providing greater energy density which translates into better mileage.</p>
<p>
ASTM’s specification for aviation fuel containing synthesize hydrocarbons (ASTM D7566) includes annexes dealing with different types of synthetic jet fuel. Annex A1 handles Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesized paraffinic kerosene (SPK) (50% max blend); Annex A2, hydroprocessed fatty acid esters and fatty acids (HEFA) (50% max blend); Annex 3, SIP (synthesized isoparaffins) (10% max blend); Annex 4, Fischer Tropsch synthesized paraffinic kerosene with aromatics (SPK/A) (50% max blend); and Annex 5, alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) (30% max blend).
</p>
<p>
Several catalytic upgrading strategies are being pursued for isobutanol to synthetic paraffinic kerosene (ATJ-SPK) approved with Annex 5. These new catalytic conversion strategies are focused on making ATJ blends that include additional hydrocarbon products&mdash;such as aromatic content&mdash;to allow for greater blending volumes of the AJF product. (<a href="http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/03/20170329-beto.html">Earlier post</a>.)
</p>
<p>
In October 2017, Gevo <a href="https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2017/10/09/1142807/0/en/Los-Alamos-National-Laboratory-to-Collaborate-with-Gevo-to-Develop-Missile-Fuel.html">announced</a> a partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) on a project to improve the energy density of Gevo ATJ to meet product specifications for tactical fuels for specialized military applications such as RJ-4, RJ-6 and JP-10, which are currently purchased by the US Department of Defense (DoD). ChemCatBio, a consortium within the US Department of Energy, awarded funding to LANL in support of the project.</p>
<p>
Gevo and LANL are looking to develop a low-cost, catalytic technology that would be bolted-on to Gevo’s existing isobutanol-to-hydrocarbons process to produce high energy density fuels (HEDFs). With the successful scale-up of this technology, it is believed that Gevo’s HEDFs could be produced at a lower cost than the petroleum-based equivalent, even at current oil prices.
</p>
<p>
HEDFs are currently used in air and sea-launched cruise missiles used by the US military forces. If this project is successful in scaling HEDFs cost-effectively, there may be an even broader application in the general aviation sector, enabling higher energy density jet fuel that would provide superior mileage to traditional aviation fuels.
</p>
<p>GE Aviation is a part of General Electric Company, and is a world-leading provider of jet engines, components and integrated systems for commercial and military aircraft.</p>
<blockquote><p><em>If we are truly going to reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from aviation, we need to be able to replace larger percentages of petroleum jet fuel with bio-based alternatives such as Gevo’s ATJ. The future is to replace the whole barrel of oil with bio-based hydrocarbons that stimulate the economy, mitigate GHG emissions, draw on abundant resources and enhance sustainability. We want to thank the FAA and GE Aviation for their vision in supporting projects like this one.</em><div align="right">&mdash;Dr. Patrick Gruber, Gevo’s CEO</div></p></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=zQjPhTDl3Kg:LDE57CTHD4E:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/zQjPhTDl3Kg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171213-gevo.htmlAcademy Bus orders 6 New Flyer electric buses for Columbia Universitytag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01bb09df8d1b970d2017-12-13T02:30:00-08:002017-12-13T10:30:00ZAcademy Express, LLC has awarded New Flyer a contract for six Xcelsior CHARGE battery-electric, forty-foot heavy-duty transit buses complete with three charging stations. The buses will be deployed in 2018 on Columbia University’s Intercampus Shuttle network, operating between locations in...mmillikin<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>
Academy Express, LLC has <a href="https://prnmedia.prnewswire.com/news-releases/academy-bus-orders-new-flyer-xcelsior-charge-battery-electric-buses-to-operate-columbia-university-shuttle-663753003.html">awarded</a> New Flyer a contract for six Xcelsior CHARGE battery-electric, forty-foot heavy-duty transit buses complete with three charging stations. The buses will be deployed in 2018 on Columbia University’s Intercampus Shuttle network, operating between locations in Manhattan, New Jersey, and Rockland County serving over 30,000 students per year, with over 20,000 students using the Intercampus Shuttle network per month.
</p>
<p>
Introduction of New Flyer’s battery-electric, zero-emission buses support Columbia University’s Sustainability Plan, which aims to reduce transportation emissions through greener campus fleets and commute alternatives. The purchase is supported by New York State Electric Vehicle Voucher Incentive Funds (NYSERDA) focused on advancing clean vehicle technologies in New York.
</p>
<p>
Based in Hoboken, New Jersey, Academy Bus is the largest privately owned and operated motor coach company in the United States. Utilizing almost 1,200 buses across 18 locations from Boston to Miami, the company maintains a diverse set of service in charter, commuter, and casino operations. Academy Bus is the contractor on record for Columbia University shuttle procurement.
</p>
</div><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=jtOJlC66CqE:zTsLMdclcgU:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/jtOJlC66CqE" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171213-academy.htmlU of Waterloo team develops low-cost approach to stabilize Li metal anodestag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b8d2c6c6db970c2017-12-13T02:00:00-08:002017-12-13T10:00:00ZResearchers at the University of Waterloo (Canada) have developed a low-cost and scalable approach that tackles the stabilization of Li metal electrodes by forming a single-ion-conducting and stable protective surface layer in vivo. They use a rationally designed electrolyte additive...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>
Researchers at the University of Waterloo (Canada) have <a href="https://uwaterloo.ca/news/news/battery-research-could-triple-range-electric-vehicles">developed</a> a low-cost and scalable approach that tackles the stabilization of Li metal electrodes by forming a single-ion-conducting and stable protective surface layer <i>in vivo</i>.
</p>
<p>
They use a rationally designed electrolyte additive complex that reacts with the Li surface to form the membrane. In a paper in the journal <i>Joule</i>, they reported demonstrating stable Li plating/stripping for 2,500 hr at 1 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> in symmetric cells, and efficient Li cycling at high current densities up to 8 mA cm<sup>-2</sup>. More than 400 cycles were achieved at 5-C rate in cells with a Li<sub>4</sub>Ti<sub>5</sub>O<sub>12</sub> counter electrode at close to 100% coulombic efficiency. The increased energy density enabled by safely using a Li metal anode could significantly increase the range of electric vehicles.
</p>
<blockquote><p><em>Li metal batteries offer promise as next-generation electrochemical storage devices for electric vehicle applications due to lithium’s highest specific capacity (3,840 mA hr g<sup>-1</sup>) and its lowest reduction potential (-3.04 V versus standard hydrogen electrode) among all metals. … [However] Li metal anodes are plagued with dendrite-like electro-deposition behavior instead of plating Li smoothly as a film. Since liquid organic electrolytes (LE) are thermodynamically unstable to reduction by Li, dendritic growth leads to the dynamic loss of active Li, buildup of a high-impedance solid electrolyte interphase (SEI), and electrolyte dry-out causing cell failure. Upon prolonged cycling, penetration of dendrites through the separator can cause hazardous cell short-circuits. Dendrite growth is also exacerbated at the higher currents necessary for fast charging.
</em></p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p><em>… Herein, we demonstrate a facile and scalable approach to build a single-ion-conducting SEI layer with controlled compositions in vivo (i.e., inside the assembled cell) that maintains complete and intimate contact with the locally uneven Li metal surface. This comprises a thin amorphous “Li<sub>3</sub>PS<sub>4</sub>” layer formed by using a low-concentration electrolyte additive. It reduces the reactions with the electrolyte and eliminates the heterogeneity of the SEI, thus allowing a non-impeding and uniform Li<sup>+</sup> flux.</em></p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p><em>The nature of in vivo formation distinguishes it from ex situ deposition of solid electrolytes (SE), such as atomic layer deposition. More importantly, the Li<sub>3</sub>PS<sub>4</sub> layer is a Li<sup>+</sup> single-ion conductor with a theoretical Li<sup>+</sup> transference number of unity, which ideally eliminates the ion depletion and strong electric field buildup at the Li surface that inspire dendrite growth. This also contrasts with other types of artificial or additive-driven ion-passivating SEIs. We show experimental evidence of these two important aspects and demonstrate that their interplay allows long-life dendrite-free Li plating.</em><div align="right">&mdash;Pang <i>et al.</i></div></p></blockquote>
<p>
The researchers designed an electrolyte additive complex&mdash;Li<sub>2</sub>S<sub>6</sub>-P<sub>2</sub>S<sub>5</sub> (denoted as LSPS)&mdash;to enable the direct formation of the Li<sub>3</sub>PS<sub>4</sub> layer on the Li metal surface in dimethoxyethane (DME).
</p>
<p>
Because the reactivity of Li with Li<sub>2</sub>S<sub>6</sub> is higher than that with DME, Li<sub>3</sub>PS<sub>4</sub> is the predominant component in the SEI upon conditioning. Even when microstructured Li forms upon extreme plating conditions, the plated Li can react with the accessible LSPS additive in the electrolyte to repair the locally damaged Li<sub>3</sub>PS<sub>4</sub> layer.
</p>
<p><b>Resources</b></p>
<ul><li><p>Quan Pang, Xiao Liang, Abhinandan Shyamsunder, Linda F. Nazar (2017) “An In Vivo Formed Solid Electrolyte Surface Layer Enables Stable Plating of Li Metal” <i>Joule</i> doi: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2017.11.009">10.1016/j.joule.2017.11.009</a>u</p></li></ul>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=V721AZfk2zI:eGroGpCTS1c:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/V721AZfk2zI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171213-waterloo.htmlRenovo and Samsung Electronics partnering on highly automated vehicle technologytag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b7c93c6d38970b2017-12-13T01:29:00-08:002017-12-13T09:29:00ZRenovo, a technology company that builds automated mobility operating systems, announced its collaboration with Samsung Electronics on the development of highly-automated vehicle technology. The collaboration, which has been underway since the beginning of the year, will enable the Samsung Strategy...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>
<a href="http://renovo.auto">Renovo</a>, a technology company that builds automated mobility operating systems, <a href="http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/renovo-and-samsung-electronics-to-develop-highly-automated-vehicle-technology-2243105.htm">announced</a> its collaboration with Samsung Electronics on the development of highly-automated vehicle technology. The collaboration, which has been underway since the beginning of the year, will enable the Samsung Strategy & Innovation Center (SSIC) Smart Machines Group to use Renovo’s AWare operating system in its first fleet of test vehicles in California. Samsung is also an investor in Renovo.
</p>
<p>
Renovo’s AWare OS is built specifically for automated mobility on demand (AMoD), and brings together heterogeneous systems safely and securely. AWare is already powering vehicles being tested on private and public roads today, and will continue to support additional AMoD pilot deployments in 2018.
</p>
<blockquote><p><em>We are delighted to have Samsung as a partner and investor, and to work with them to develop the highly automated vehicles that will reshape mobility in the coming years. Samsung is a global technology leader that helped disrupt the entire communications industry as traditional flip phones became the smartphones we use today. With a similar transformation coming to the mobility sector, Samsung was the first and obvious choice for Renovo to partner with as a technology collaborator and investor. Samsung’s recent announcements about their activities in the mobility sector underscore their commitment to it. We look forward to continuing to work together to develop and bring to market highly automated vehicle technology and solutions.</em><div align="right">&mdash;Chris Heiser, Co-Founder and CEO of Renovo</div></p></blockquote>
<p>
Samsung has already, through its other funds, partnered with and invested in a number of innovative automotive companies that will help create smarter, safer, connected vehicles.
</p>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=BbdbYxzTnAU:EemxB2VNp1M:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/BbdbYxzTnAU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171213-renovo.htmlSwRI opens ECTO-Lab for quick, cost-effective qualification of catalysts, emission control productstag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b7c93c67cb970b2017-12-13T01:01:00-08:002017-12-13T09:01:00ZSouthwest Research Institute recently opened a new fully automated, multi-fuel burner facility designed to rapidly and cost-effectively age and evaluate exhaust catalyst equipment for a wide range of engines. The Exhaust Component Transient Operation Laboratory (ECTO-Lab) uses SwRI-developed modular technology...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Southwest Research Institute recently opened a new fully automated, multi-fuel burner facility designed to rapidly and cost-effectively age and evaluate exhaust catalyst equipment for a wide range of engines. The Exhaust Component Transient Operation Laboratory (<a href="https://www.swri.org/industry/automotive-vehicles-engines-drivelines-emissions/exhaust-composition-transient-operation">ECTO-Lab</a>) uses SwRI-developed modular technology that is also available for purchase and installation at client facilities.</p>
<p>The ECTO-Lab can simulate lean and stoichiometric exhaust gas conditions utilizing gasoline, diesel, natural gas, or propane fuels. It accommodates full-sized catalysts from light-duty gasoline engines to large, heavy-duty diesel and natural gas engines, said Assistant Director Dr. Cary Henry, who oversees SwRI’s catalyst and aftertreatment research and development activities. </p>
<p>
The current ECTO-Lab technology offers an expanded flow range of up to 3,250 kg/h, allowing SwRI even to simulate exhaust from large stationary engines.
</p>
<p>
Aftertreatment equipment processes exhaust emissions to remove potentially harmful gases and particulates to help engines meet increasingly strict regulations. These include catalytic converters common on gasoline vehicles as well as diesel oxidation catalysts, diesel particulate filters, selective catalytic reduction catalysts and ammonia slip components. The ECTO-Lab facility assesses the performance and durability of these products in service.
</p>
<p>
Traditionally, these tests have been conducted on engine test stands, but increasingly complex emission control systems compound design and evaluation efforts. SwRI says that its burner-based approach can safely and efficiently simulate the exhaust gas conditions for a variety of internal combustion engines, streamlining the evaluation of catalyst components and emission control systems and saving clients time and money. SwRI has also improved system controls, allowing precise control of low exhaust flow rates. </p>
<p>The exhaust gas conditions are generated through independent, model-based control and allow any combination of flow, temperature, NO<sub>x</sub>, THC, H<sub>2</sub>0, and O<sub>2</sub> concentration within its window of operation. The system is capable of replicating the exhaust gas profiles for engines from 1.5 L to 30 L.</p>
<p>
ECTO-Lab provides additional features to replicate field aged components. To do so, an oil- and sulfur-dosing system is utilized to promote chemical poisoning exposure to aftertreatment components. This provides the end user with valuable information to understand field component aging under specialized cycle operation.
</p>
<p>For light-duty applications, the sulfur-dosing system can also be used to evaluate Lean NOX Trap (LNT) performance for engine De-SOX strategies. Coupled with the NO<sub>x</sub> control system, complete LNT testing can be executed, which also includes the De-NO<sub>x</sub> stage.</p>
<blockquote><p><em>Burner systems use less fuel, making them a cost-effective, environmentally friendly alternative. The modular structure allows components to be added to the base combustor and water-to-air-heat exchanger to simulate stoichiometric or lean-burn multi-fuel engines. We can also replicate full transient exhaust traces for these engine applications. </em><div align="right">&mdash;Cary Henry</div></p></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=7snjnHl1EiQ:UrBitimMng8:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/7snjnHl1EiQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/swri-opens-ecto-lab-for-quick-cost-effective-qualification-of-catalysts-emission-control-products.htmlNeste to double production of drop-in renewable fuels and chemicals in Singapore to approx. 2Mt per yeartag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b7c93c5626970b2017-12-13T01:00:00-08:002017-12-13T09:00:00ZNeste has begun design of a new production line in its Singapore refinery for the production of renewable diesel, renewable aviation fuel and raw materials for various biochemical uses. The company is aiming to make a final investment decision by...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Neste has <a href="https://www.neste.com/en/nestes-growth-program-renewable-products-takes-step-forward">begun</a> design of a new production line in its Singapore refinery for the production of renewable diesel, renewable aviation fuel and raw materials for various biochemical uses. The company is aiming to make a final investment decision by the end of 2018. If the project proceeds as planned, production at the new production line, which will add one million tons of capacity, will begin by 2022.</p>
<p>The growth project includes an enhanced pre-treatment unit in preparation for the use of increasingly poor-quality waste materials.</p>
<blockquote><p><em>There were two equally good locations for the refinery, the United States and Singapore. We investigated the strengths of both potential operating environments, and also revisited our outlooks for raw materials and demand. Based on this overall assessment, we settled on Singapore.</em><div align="right">&mdash;Kaisa Hietala, head of Neste’s Renewable Products business</div></p></blockquote>
<p>Neste currently has a renewable diesel production capacity of 2.6 million tons. Of this total, over one million is produced in Singapore, the same amount in Rotterdam and the rest in Porvoo, Finland. By eliminating bottlenecks, this total capacity will be increased to 3 million tons by 2020. In addition to producing renewable diesel, the refineries are able to produce renewable aviation fuel and raw materials for various biochemical uses.</p>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=hMky5BS_MWc:OLIcx-iqpPs:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/hMky5BS_MWc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171213-neste.htmlGlobal Bioenergies starts scale-up of its second process: renewable acetone and isopropanoltag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01bb09df767c970d2017-12-13T00:30:00-08:002017-12-13T08:30:00ZGlobal Bioenergies has started the scale-up phase of a process converting renewable resources into acetone and isopropanol. The markets for both these 3-carbon compounds are well established and worth billions of dollars. In a further process, these two compounds can...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>
Global Bioenergies has <a href="http://www.global-bioenergies.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/20171212_pr_en.pdf">started</a> the scale-up phase of a process converting renewable resources into acetone and isopropanol. The markets for both these 3-carbon compounds are well established and worth billions of dollars. In a further process, these two compounds can be converted to propylene, a key petrochemical building block with a market valued in excess of US$100 billion. The process has been transferred to ARD, a specialist in scaling up fermentation processes, and the first pilot run has been successfully completed.
</p>
<p>
Founded in 2008, Global Bioenergies develops processes to convert renewable resources into fuels and materials. Its most technically mature process is for the production of isobutene, a 4-carbon compound, from which fuels and materials are derived. While the process continues to be improved in the laboratory, demo plant trials are under way, and a full-scale plant project is being studied in a joint venture with Cristal Union, Europe’s fourth-largest sugar producer.
</p>
<p>
The second process in the portfolio to enter the scale-up phase targets the production of acetone and isopropanol, two 3-carbon (C<sub>3</sub>) compounds that are extensively used in a wide range of industries (solvents, materials, cosmetics). These compounds can subsequently be converted into propylene, a key molecule in the plastics industry.
</p>
<table width="250 rules="none" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" border="0" align="right" class="table" style="font-size: 8pt; line-height: 140%; font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-left: 10px;">
<tbody bgcolor="#ffe89c"><tr><td align="center">The isobutene and C3 processes target different markets which together constitute the core of the petrochemical industry.<div align="right">&mdash;Marc Delcourt, CEO of Global Bioenergies</div></td></tr> </tbody></table>
<p>
This innovative process is based on converting renewable resources by fermentation using bacterial strains with an engineered cellular metabolism. In nature, some bacteria produce acetone, but with a limited yield. Global Bioenergies’ innovation consists in radically remodeling the core carbon metabolism of the strains thereby unlocking high yields of sugar conversion.
</p>
<p>
The “C<sub>3</sub> process” has been transferred to ARD, a company installed on the Pomacle-Bazancourt agro-industrial site, which specializes in scaling up fermentation processes. A first fermentation run was successfully completed.
</p>
<blockquote><p><em>This first C<sub>3</sub> process scale-up run has enabled the successful production of a mix of acetone and isopropanol at kilogram scale. We could reach ton scale production as early as 2018.</em><div align="right">&mdash;Yvon le Hénaff, CEO of ARD</div></p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p><em>Using strains whose core metabolism is engineered has enabled us to exceed the maximum fermentation yield obtainable by natural glycolysis-based bacteria in the lab, while maintaining an important carbon flux towards the targeted products. In the future, these high-yield bacteria could be used to produce many other products.</em><div align="right">&mdash;Frédéric Pâques, Chief Operations Officer of Global Bioenergies</div></p></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=rivfwuUnPjk:P4jUDKttLbM:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/rivfwuUnPjk" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171213-gbe.htmlToyota and Panasonic to start feasibility study on forming joint automotive prismatic battery business; studying solid-state batteries alsotag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b8d2c6e5bc970c2017-12-13T00:01:00-08:002017-12-13T08:01:00ZToyota Motor Corporation and Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic) have agreed to begin studying the feasibility of creating a joint business focused specifically on high-capacity prismatic batteries for automotive applications. Panasonic is notably already a parter with Tesla and its Gigafactory, making...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>
Toyota Motor Corporation and Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic) have <a href="https://newsroom.toyota.co.jp/en/corporate/20243148.html">agreed</a> to begin studying the feasibility of creating a joint business focused specifically on high-capacity prismatic batteries for automotive applications. Panasonic is notably already a parter with Tesla and its Gigafactory, making cylindrical cells.
</p>
<p>
This agreement is intended to address growing demand and expectations for electrified vehicles. In order to realize these objectives, Toyota and Panasonic will target further advancements in automotive batteries&mdash;such as solid-state batteries.
</p>
<blockquote><p><em>If we look at the future, where do we see growth? Which car manufacturers will play a major role? What types of batteries will they require? </em><div align="right">&mdash;Kazuhiro Tsuga, President of Panasonic</div></p></blockquote>
<p>
Since Toyota and Panasonic began their business relationship in 1953, the two companies have been challenging each other with the goal of mutual improvement, particularly in honing their manufacturing capabilities (monozukuri). With the business environment undergoing drastic change, both companies say they have realized the importance of collaborating with trusted partners and looking past conventional boundaries to contribute to the world through monozukuri and creating new value.
</p>
<p>
Through activities such as launching the Prius, the world’s first mass production hybrid vehicle (HV), in 1997, and the Mirai fuel cell vehicle (FCV) in 2014, Toyota has a record of taking on difficult challenges with varying degrees of success in its effort to realize a sustainable mobility society.
</p>
<p>
Leveraging the know-how and experience accumulated through the continuous refinement and commercialization of its electrification technologies, Toyota is working on the development of a full range of environmentally friendly vehicles including HVs, PHVs (plug-in hybrid vehicles), FCVs, and EVs (electric vehicles).
</p>
<p>
Panasonic has positioned automotive lithium-ion batteries as one of its key businesses, and its automotive batteries are used by many automakers worldwide. Panasonic’s technological capabilities which achieve various requirements for such batteries are well regarded in the market. The company is making efforts to further enhance the safety and capacity of its automotive prismatic batteries, making use of its accumulated technological knowledge in the battery business.
</p>
<p>
Toyota and Panasonic recognize the importance that further advancements in battery performance, price and safety, as well as a stable supply capacity, will have on encouraging further popularization of electrified vehicles. Both companies will consider details of the collaboration with the aim of achieving the best automotive prismatic battery in the industry and, ultimately, contributing to the popularization of Toyota’s and other automakers’ electrified vehicles.
</p>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=M-4Pb14NAc4:1NTIMikSlXc:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/M-4Pb14NAc4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171213-toyota.htmlKBA issues recall on VW Touareg 3.0L Euro 6 diesel over defeat devicestag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b7c93c4c15970b2017-12-12T07:04:39-08:002017-12-12T15:04:39ZThe German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) has issued a mandatory recall of VW Touareg 3.0L Euro 6 diesels after discovering what the agency said were two inadmissible defeat devices were detected. Of these, 25,800 vehicles are licensed in Germany...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) has <a href="https://www.kba.de/DE/Home/vw_touareg_inhalt.html">issued</a> a mandatory recall of VW Touareg 3.0L Euro 6 diesels after discovering what the agency said were two inadmissible defeat devices were detected. Of these, 25,800 vehicles are licensed in Germany and 57,600 worldwide.</p>
<p>The KBA said that in the NEDC, the affected vehicles (1) initiate a pollution-reducing warm-up strategy which is mostly not activated in real traffic and (2) limit the use of AdBlue under certain inadmissible conditions.</p>
<p><p></p>
<p>The production of new vehicles has already been converted by Volkswagen.</p>
<p>
Volkswagen as instructed has presented the KBA with new engine software for the affected vehicles. KBA has checked and approved the software update; VW must now recall and retrofit the vehicles in the field.
</p>
<p>
Volkswagen is already using the revised software in production of new vehicles.
</p>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=moV1mRUY4iE:JtSMvVfh-x8:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/moV1mRUY4iE" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171212-kba.html11 Japanese auto, infrastructure and financial companies establishing new company to develop hydrogen stationstag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b8d2c69b93970c2017-12-12T04:30:00-08:002017-12-12T12:30:00ZAs a result of discussions that began in May 2017, eleven companies in Japan have signed an agreement to form a new company in the spring of 2018 aimed at the full-fledged development of hydrogen recharging stations (HRS) for fuel...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>
As a result of discussions that began in May 2017, eleven companies in Japan have signed an <a href="https://newsroom.toyota.co.jp/en/corporate/20245446.html?adid=ag478_mail&amp;padid=ag478_mail">agreement</a> to form a new company in the spring of 2018 aimed at the full-fledged development of hydrogen recharging stations (HRS) for fuel cell vehicles (FCV). The initial partners include Toyota Motor Corporation; Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.; Honda Motor Co., Ltd.; JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation; Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd.; Iwatani Corporation; Tokyo Gas Co. Ltd.; Toho Gas Co., Ltd.; Air Liquide Japan Ltd.; Toyota Tsusho Corporation; and Development Bank of Japan Inc.
</p>
<p>
The new company will be established to accelerate Japan’s hydrogen initiative&mdash;which is driven mainly by these 11 companies&mdash;toward the achievement of Japan’s common target shared by the government and industries regarding the development of hydrogen recharging stations. According to the “Strategic Road Map for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells” (revised 22 March 2016) released by the Council for a Strategy for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells, an industry body organized by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of Japan, in the initial phase of promoting fuel cell vehicles powered by hydrogen, the target penetration is 160 stations and 40,000 fuel cell vehicles by FY 2020.
</p>
<p>
The objective of the new company is to enhance the collaboration among infrastructure developers, automakers, and financial institutions in order to simultaneously accelerate and scale up Japan’s deployment of HRS and FCV.
</p>
<p>
The new company will take on the following specific initiatives:
</p>
<ol><li><p><b>Strategic deployment of hydrogen recharging stations.</b> The company will aim to complete its mission in 10 years. During the first four years in Phase 1, the new company intends to target the construction of 80 new stations. To achieve this target, new member companies, extending beyond the current member companies, will be invited to participate.</p><p>The new company will, while taking into account subsidies from the national government and initiatives of local governments, develop its own original “Hydrogen Recharging Station Deployment Plan,” in order to create an environment in which many users can enjoy driving fuel cell vehicles in Japan.</p></li>
<li><p><b>Contribution to efficient hydrogen station operation.</b> By collecting and utilizing information regarding the construction and operation of hydrogen recharging stations through infrastructure developers, which will oversee operations of hydrogen recharging stations, the new company, which will deploy and own stations nationwide, will contribute to efficient operations and other road map objectives. </p>
<p>To encourage customers to use hydrogen, the new company will improve the convenience of stations, coordinating with the Association of Hydrogen Supply and Utilization Technology (HySUT), which has already begun actively expanding the market, for example by extending the number of service days per week to meet increased demand.</p>
<p>
The new company will collaborate with external organizations, such as the Fuel Cell Commercialization Conference of Japan (FCCJ) and HySUT, to reduce cost by addressing issues such as the standardization of equipment and revision of regulations.</p></li></ol>
<p>
To carry out these actions, member companies will play the following key roles:
</p>
<ul><li><p>The infrastructure developers (JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation; Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd.; Iwatani Corporation; Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd.; Toho Gas Co., Ltd.; and Air Liquide Japan Ltd. )will invest in and construct hydrogen recharging stations, and operate them, on behalf of the new company;</p></li>
<li><p>The automakers (Toyota Motor Corporation; Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.; Honda Motor Co., Ltd.) will contribute financially to the operations of the new company in order to efficiently deploy hydrogen recharging stations, improve convenience for users, and boost public awareness, while also striving for higher penetration of fuel cell vehicles during Phase 1; and</p></li>
<li><p>The financial institutions (Toyota Tsusho Corporation; Development Bank of Japan Inc.) will partially cover HRS deployment costs through investments. By providing the funds necessary until the HRS business becomes commercially sustainable, financial institutions will help reduce the financial burden borne by infrastructure developers during Phase 1 and will help attract new participants.</p></li></ul>
<p>
The new company will aim to seek wider participation by HRS-operating companies and investors, to achieve a sustainable HRS business and FCV penetration as swiftly as possible, thus contributing to the creation of a full-fledged hydrogen society in Japan.
</p>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=-2DQmkJhkrs:6MWRsTB73Io:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/-2DQmkJhkrs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171212-h2.htmlResearchers discover pathway to optimize performance of lithium-rich cathodes; potential boon for EVstag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01bb09df51a1970d2017-12-12T04:00:00-08:002017-12-12T12:00:00ZLithium-rich layered oxide cathodes are of significant interest because their specific capacities often exceed 200 mAh g-1 at high operating voltages over 3.5V, in contrast to the performance of their conventional layered counterparts with capacities of ~145-165 mAh g-1. The...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>
Lithium-rich layered oxide cathodes are of significant interest because their specific capacities often exceed 200 mAh g<sup>-1</sup> at high operating voltages over 3.5V, in contrast to the performance of their conventional layered counterparts with capacities of ~145-165 mAh g<sup>-1</sup>. The higher energy density could theoretically power an EV 30-50% further between charges.
</p>
<p>However, most of these Li-rich materials suffer from voltage drop and capacity fading during cycling, thus limiting their use. Years of research have not been able to pin down why this occurs. Now, researchers from Stanford University, two Department of Energy national labs and the battery manufacturer Samsung have created a comprehensive picture of how the same chemical processes that give these cathodes their high capacity are also linked to changes in atomic structure that sap their performance. The team’s open-access paper appears in <i>Nature Communications</i>.</p>
<blockquote><p><em>This is good news. It gives us a promising new pathway for optimizing the voltage performance of lithium-rich cathodes by controlling the way their atomic structure evolves as a battery charges and discharges.</em><div align="right">&mdash;William E. Gent, a Stanford University graduate student and Siebel Scholar who led the study</div></p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p><em>It is a huge deal if you can get these lithium-rich electrodes to work because they would be one of the enablers for electric cars with a much longer range. There is enormous interest in the automotive community in developing ways to implement these, and understanding what the technological barriers are may help us solve the problems that are holding them back.</em><div align="right">&mdash;Michael Toney, a distinguished staff scientist at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and co-author</div></p></blockquote>
<p>
The researchers studied the cathodes with a variety of X-ray techniques at SLAC’s Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Advanced Light Source (ALS). Theorists from Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry, led by David Prendergast, were also involved, helping the experimenters understand what to look for and explain their results.
</p>
<p>
The cathodes themselves were made by Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology using commercially relevant processes, and assembled into batteries similar to those in electric vehicles.
</p>
<p>
This ensured that the results would be directly relevant for our industry partners, Gent said. As an ALS doctoral fellow in residence, he was involved in both the experiments and the theoretical modelling for the study.
</p>
<p>
The more ions an electrode can absorb and release in relation to its size and weight&mdash;its capacity&mdash;the more energy it can store and the smaller and lighter a battery can be, allowing batteries to shrink and electric cars to travel more miles between charges.
</p>
<p>
Current Li-ion cathodes operate at only about half of their theoretical capacity, said Stanford Professor William Chueh, an investigator with the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences (SIMES) at SLAC.
</p>
<blockquote><p><em>But you can’t charge it all the way full. It’s like a bucket you fill with water, but then you can only pour half of the water out. This is one of big challenges in the field right now – how do you get these cathode materials to behave up to their theoretical capacity? That’s why people have been so excited about the prospect of storing a lot more energy in lithium-rich cathodes.</em><div align="right">&mdash;William Chueh</div></p></blockquote>
<p>
Like today’s cathodes, lithium-rich cathodes are made of layers of lithium sandwiched between layers of transition metal oxides&mdash;e.g., nickel, manganese or cobalt combined with oxygen. Adding lithium to the oxide layer increases the cathode’s capacity by 30 to 50 percent.
</p>
<p>
Previous research had shown that several things happen simultaneously when lithium-rich cathodes charge, Chueh said: Lithium ions move out of the cathode into the anode. Some transition metal atoms move in to take their place. Meanwhile, oxygen atoms release some of their electrons, establishing the electrical current and voltage for charging.
</p>
<p>
When the lithium ions and electrons return to the cathode during discharge, most of the transition metal interlopers return to their original spots, but not all of them and not right away. With each cycle, this back and forth changes the cathode’s atomic structure.
</p>
<blockquote><p><em>We knew all these phenomena were probably related, but not how. Now this suite of experiments at SSRL and ALS shows the mechanism that connects them and how to control it. This is a significant technological discovery that people have not holistically understood.</em><div align="right">&mdash;Willliam Chueh</div></p></blockquote>
<p>
At SLAC’s SSRL, Toney and his colleagues used a variety of X-ray methods to make a careful determination of how the cathode’s atomic and chemical structure changed as the battery charged and discharged.
</p>
<p>
Another important tool was soft X-ray RIXS (resonant inelastic X-ray scattering), which gleans atomic-scale information about a material’s magnetic and electronic properties. An advanced RIXS system that began operation at ALS last year scans samples much faster than before.
</p>
<blockquote><p><em>RIXS has mostly been used for fundamental physics. But with this new ALS system, we wanted to really open up RIXS for practical materials studies, including energy-related materials. Now that its potential for these studies has been partially demonstrated, we could easily extend RIXS to other battery materials and reveal information that was not accessible before.</em><div align="right">&mdash;ALS scientist Wanli Yang</div></p></blockquote>
<p>
The team is already working toward using the fundamental knowledge they have gained to design battery materials that can reach their theoretical capacity and not lose voltage over time.
</p>
<p>
The research was funded by the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office and by Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology Global Research Outreach Program.
</p>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=9UuLh3zUx7Y:OnJpRAVYbUE:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/9UuLh3zUx7Y" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171212-lirich.htmlNREL-led research could lead to improved enzyme performance to break down biomass for renewable fuelstag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b7c93c44f3970b2017-12-12T03:30:00-08:002017-12-12T11:30:00ZA team led by researchers from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have gained new insights into how glycosylation—the natural attachment of sugars to proteins—affects a key cellulase enzyme. This work could be used to...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>
A team led by researchers from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have <a href="https://www.nrel.gov/news/press/2017/nrel_research_finds_a_sweet_spot_for_engineering_better_cellulose_degrading_enzymes.html">gained</a> new insights into how glycosylation&mdash;the natural attachment of sugars to proteins&mdash;affects a key cellulase enzyme. This work could be used to improve enzyme performance to better break down biomass and convert waste plant matter to renewable fuels and products.
</p>
<p>
The new research, which focuses on the enzyme Cel7A that breaks down cellulose in plants to sugars, is detailed in a paper in the <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</i> (PNAS). The study elucidates the specific functions of small sugars (glycans) that microbes attach to their enzymes. This enzymatic modification by the addition of sugars is referred to as “glycosylation” and it is known to have a substantial impact on enzyme function.
</p>
<blockquote><p><em>Enzymes for breaking down cellulose are notoriously difficult to engineer for improved activity. It has long been realized that glycosylation is a ‘knob to turn’ in this endeavor, but the specific roles of the different glycans have been elusive.</em><div align="right">&mdash;\NREL Staff Engineer Brandon Knott, a co-author</div></p></blockquote>
<p>
With uncertainty surrounding how the different kinds of glycans relate to different enzyme functions, NREL developed a unique recombinant expression system to test new enzymes, producing a large collection of Cel7A mutants that lacked various combinations of glycosylation sites.
</p>
<p>
A team of researchers from NREL, the University of Georgia, and the University of Colorado, Boulder, then characterized all the mutant enzymes and compared the features to those of the native enzyme to gather critical data about the relationships between the specific glycan, its function, and its location.
</p>
<blockquote><p><em>Based on the literature, we already thought that we knew the location of all of the glycosylation sites. In confirming their locations, we not only discovered new glycans, we also elucidated the structures of the glycans at each specific site. This provides insight into how the microbe is protecting and decorating its enzymes for optimal activity, which in turn provides clues on how to improve them for industrial applications.</em><div align="right">&mdash;co-author Antonella Amore, a postdoc at NREL</div></p></blockquote>
<p>
Gaining a deeper understanding of the basic structure, function, and relationships of proteins is fundamental to helping design new strategies to improve overall enzyme performance. However, building a superior enzyme requires an understanding of a vast combination of factors. It is important to know which glycans protect against protease attacks, which ones are essential for binding to enzyme stability, and which are key for enzyme binding and activity.
</p>
<p>
NREL’s findings have revealed that, depending on its type and where it is attached, glycosylation is important for strengthening the binding of Cel7A to cellulose, protecting the enzyme against proteases that break down the protein, and bolstering the enzyme’s thermal stability, which allows the enzyme to keep working at temperatures that would be encountered in an industrial biomass conversion process.
</p>
<p>
The work reported in PNAS was funded by the DOE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office.
</p>
<p><b>Resources</b></p>
<ul><li><p>Antonella Amore, Brandon C. Knott, Nitin T. Supekar, Asif Shajahan, Parastoo Azadi, Peng Zhao, Lance Wells, Jeffrey G. Linger, Sarah E. Hobdey, Todd A. Vander Wall, Todd Shollenberger, John M. Yarbrough, Zhongping Tan, Michael F. Crowley, Michael E. Himmel, Stephen R. Decker, Gregg T. Beckham, and Larry E. Taylor II (2017) “Distinct roles of N- and O-glycans in cellulase activity and stability” <i>PNAS</i> doi: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1714249114">10.1073/pnas.1714249114</a></p></li></ul>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=xBe38UanXjU:5s4yFxHDtHE:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/xBe38UanXjU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171212-nrel.htmlPropane Autogas fueling nearly 600 Nestlé Waters’ delivery trucks; about 30% of NA fleettag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b7c93c41d7970b2017-12-12T02:31:00-08:002017-12-12T10:31:00ZNestlé Waters North America’s is deploying more than 400 additional medium-duty beverage delivery trucks fueled by propane autogas. The company now operates nearly 600 of these alternatively fueled trucks, which make up about 30% of its total North American fleet....mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>
Nestlé Waters North America’s is deploying more than 400 additional medium-duty beverage delivery trucks fueled by propane autogas. The company now operates nearly 600 of these alternatively fueled trucks, which make up about 30% of its total North American fleet.
</p>
<blockquote><p><em>We’ve been running propane autogas vehicles since 2014, beginning with five class 5 vehicles. Based on the proven emissions reduction compared with our older diesel units, and lower fuel and total cost of ownership, we knew this was the right application for us within the alternative fuel space. With propane being domestically produced, it’s proven to have a more stable cost per gallon, while the fueling and maintenance infrastructures are much more cost effective than other alternative fuel options.</em><div align="right">&mdash;Bill Ardis, national fleet manager for the ReadyRefresh business unit of Nestlé Waters</div></p></blockquote>
<p>
ReadyRefresh’s additional Ford F-650/750 delivery trucks are each equipped with a ROUSH CleanTech propane autogas fuel system that provides 55 usable gallons of fuel.
</p>
<p>
The Ford 6.8L V10 3V engine with a ROUSH CleanTech fuel system is certified to 0.05 grams per brake horsepower-hour for NO<sub>x</sub>. This engine is 75% cleaner than the current Environmental Protection Agency standard and 99% cleaner than diesel vehicles built before 2007.
</p>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=M6-iLQQtoG0:rR9ai2YWXgo:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/M6-iLQQtoG0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171212-nestle.htmlAAA tests show premium fuel benefits some vehicles, but comes at a high costtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b8d2c696ae970c2017-12-12T02:00:00-08:002017-12-12T10:00:00ZLast year, nearly 1.5 million new vehicles sold in the United States recommend, but do not require, premium gasoline. The trend toward recommending or requiring higher-octane fuel continues to rise as manufacturers work toward meeting stringent CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Last year, nearly 1.5 million new vehicles sold in the United States recommend, but do not require, premium gasoline. The trend toward recommending or requiring higher-octane fuel continues to rise as manufacturers work toward meeting stringent CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards. </p>
<p>According to new research from AAA, premium gasoline offers some benefit to these select vehicles, but is becoming increasingly expensive for drivers. In recent years, the price gap between premium and regular-grade gasoline has risen from an historically steady 10% to 25% or more per gallon. While past AAA research has shown no benefit in using premium gasoline in a vehicle designed to operate on regular fuel, new testing indicates that some vehicles&mdash;those that recommend, but do not require premium gasoline&mdash;may see increased fuel economy and performance under certain driving conditions when using the higher-octane gasoline.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the high cost of premium gasoline may outweigh that advantage for many drivers. As a result, AAA recommends drivers weigh the potential benefits against the cost of using premium gasoline, if their vehicle does not require it.</p>
<blockquote><p><em>AAA’s testing reveals that drivers could see modest gains in fuel economy and performance when opting for premium gasoline in vehicles that recommend, but do not require, the higher-octane fuel. Those seeking the maximum capabilities of their performance-focused or utility vehicle may see some benefit from using premium gasoline, particularly over the long haul.
</em><div align="right">&mdash;Megan McKernan, manager of the Automobile Club of Southern California’s Automotive Research Center</div></p></blockquote>
<p>In partnership with the Automobile Club of Southern California’s Automotive Research Center, AAA tested a variety of vehicles that recommend, but do not require, the use of premium (91 octane or higher) gasoline. Although drivers of these vehicles are unlikely to see any benefit from using premium gasoline during typical city or highway driving, a combination of laboratory and on-road tests were performed to simulate extreme driving scenarios such as towing, hauling cargo and aggressive acceleration. When using premium fuel in these vehicles under these conditions, AAA tests found that:</p>
<ul><li><p>Fuel economy for test vehicles averaged a 2.7% improvement. Individual vehicle test result averages ranged from a decrease of 1% (2016 Audi A3) to an improvement of 7.1% (2016 Cadillac Escalade).
</p></li>
<li><p>Horsepower for test vehicles averaged an increase of 1.4%. Individual vehicle test result averages ranged from a decrease of 0.3% (2016 Jeep Renegade) to an improvement of 3.2% (2017 Ford Mustang).
</p></li>
<li><p>According to national averages, the price difference between regular and premium gasoline is approximately 20 to 25%, or 50 cents per gallon.</p></li>
<li><p>The modest fuel economy improvements found in AAA tests do not offset the higher cost of premium gasoline.</p></li>
</ul>
<blockquote><p><em>Research that quantifies how a vehicle reacts to gasoline with different octane ratings is essentially looking at engine calibration – the programming done by the vehicle’s manufacturer to provide low emissions, high fuel economy, and maximum driving performance. Higher octane ratings are achieved by additives to gasoline that allow higher compression before the gas-air mixture in a combustion cylinder auto-ignites. This auto-ignition causes an audible knock or ping sound&mdash;particularly on hard acceleration or during a hill climb. Higher octane allows more power extraction before auto-ignition occurs, thus allowing an engine design that uses a higher compression ratio and or operating the engine with ignition timing further advanced. When the engine design and fuel requirements are closely matched, maximum operating efficiency can be obtained. For the consumer, this means better performance and fuel economy.</p>
<p>
To complicate the engine calibration challenge, automakers cannot rigidly enforce the octane level and quality of gasoline used in the vehicles they produce. Fuel quality varies by region across the United States. Drivers can freely select from 85 octane regular to super-premium 94 octane (or higher) depending on the area of the country and fuel retailer. Knowing what octane gasoline is recommended or required by your vehicle can help maximize both fuel economy and performance. </em><div align="right">&mdash;AAA Premium Fuel Research, Phase II</div></p></blockquote>
<p>For those vehicles that do not recommend or require premium gasoline, AAA suggests drivers opt for the lower priced, regular fuel. In a <a href="http://newsroom.aaa.com/2016/09/u-s-drivers-waste-2-1-billion-annually-premium-gasoline/">study released last year</a>, AAA found that consumers wasted nearly $2.1 billion dollars fueling these vehicles with higher-octane gasoline. However, drivers of vehicles that require premium gasoline should always use it. Additionally, any vehicle that makes a “pinging” or “knocking” sound while using regular gasoline should be evaluated by a repair facility and likely switched to a higher-octane fuel, AAA said. </p>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=S9KFvQIoSSU:rxxeL5pjULU:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/S9KFvQIoSSU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171212-aaa.htmlNational Academies’ Gulf Research Program awards $10.8M to address systemic risk in offshore oil and gas operationstag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b8d2c69387970c2017-12-12T01:30:00-08:002017-12-12T09:30:00ZThe Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is awarding $10.8 million to six new projects to develop new technologies, processes, or procedures that could result in improved understanding and management of systemic risk...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The <a href="http://www.national-academies.org/gulf">Gulf Research Program</a> (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is <a href="http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12072017&utm_source=NASEM+News+and+Publications&utm_campaign=a30fb963b8-NAP_mail_new_2017-12-11&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_96101de015-a30fb963b8-101946481&goal=0_96101de015-a30fb963b8-101946481&mc_cid=a30fb963b8&mc_eid=ad965db228">awarding</a> $10.8 million to six new projects to develop new technologies, processes, or procedures that could result in improved understanding and management of systemic risk in offshore oil and gas operations.</p>
<p>The greatest risk in offshore oil and gas operations is the uncontrolled release of hydrocarbons and the threats such events pose to human health and safety, the environment, and infrastructure&mdash;as evidenced by the <em>Deepwater Horizon</em> disaster. Comprehensive awareness of the systemic vulnerabilities that can lead to uncontrolled hydrocarbon release during drilling, production, or decommissioning activities of offshore oil and gas operations is essential to reducing existing risks and anticipating and avoiding new ones, the GRP says.</p>
<blockquote><p><em>These projects address several facets of risk in offshore operations. This includes research on the problem of gas unloading within deepwater drilling risers, development of remote detection capabilities of hydrocarbon releases, design of improved cementing mixtures and better techniques for sealing wells, and development of tools to assist team decision-making in the offshore environment.</em><div align="right">&mdash;Kelly Oskvig, program officer for the GRP’s Safer Offshore Energy Systems initiative</div></p></blockquote>
<p>The six projects were selected after an external peer-review process.</p>
<table align="center" border="1" bordercolor="#C6C6C6" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="table" style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 140%; FONT-FAMILY: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" width="545"><thead bgcolor="#ffe89c" class="thead">
<tr><th align="left"><span style="color: #330066;">Lead Organization</span></th>
<th align="center"><span style="color: #330066;">Description</span></th>
<th align="center"><span style="color: #330066;">Funding</span></th></tr></thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top">Oklahoma State University</td>
<td align="left" valign="top"><strong>Advanced Cement Characterization and Modeling to Evaluate Novel Additives to Improve Wellbore Integrity</strong><br />Cement is a major material component in the construction and sealing of hydrocarbon wells. Well leakage through cement is a problem that increases maintenance costs and poses threats to surrounding communities and the environment. This project aims to improve characterization and understanding of well cement mixtures to better predict leakage potential and investigate cement additives that could reduce leakage potential and improve wellbore integrity. This information will improve modeling capability of wellbore integrity and guide designs that can be used to reduce leakage.
</td>
<td align="right" valign="top">$671,000</td></tr>
<tr bgcolor="#e1e0f1"><td align="left" valign="top">Louisiana State University</td>
<td align="left" valign="top"><strong>Experiments on Multiphase Flow of Live Muds in a Full-Scale Wellbore with Distributed Sensing for Kick and Gas-in-riser Detection/Mitigation</strong><br />Pressure barriers provide the primary means of preventing uncontrolled hydrocarbon releases in offshore wells. However, these barriers are only effective if they have been designed, properly operated, and maintained for the conditions of the environment in which they are employed. The project focuses on gaps in understanding about the behavior of riser gas under high temperature and pressure. Testing will be done using an existing well retrofitted with pressure and temperature sensors to produce data for validating and verifying riser gas models that inform design of pressure barriers and techniques for preventing uncontrolled hydrocarbon releases.</td>
<td align="right" valign="top">$4,910,000</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top">University of Houston</td>
<td align="left" valign="top"><strong>Hydrocarbon Influx Behavior within a Deepwater Marine Riser: Implications for Design and Operations</strong><br />Formation and management of gas within deepwater marine drilling risers poses a variety of challenges and hazards for offshore energy operations. Uncontrolled riser gas build-up and release was a major component of the <em>Deepwater Horizon</em> disaster. This project aims to improve understanding of riser gas formation and unloading (i.e., the processes involved in managing riser gas) through development, calibration, and implementation of modeling to describe the dynamics pertaining to riser gas under different situations and operating conditions and assessment of instrumentation that could be used to detect riser gas properties and behavior.
</td>
<td align="right" valign="top">$1,200,000</td></tr>
<tr bgcolor="#e1e0f1"><td align="left" valign="top">Louisiana State University</td>
<td align="left" valign="top"><strong>Mitigating Risks to Hydrocarbon Release through Integrative Advanced Materials for Wellbore Plugging and Remediation</strong><br />Leaky wellbores with inadequate well plugging materials can allow the release of hydrocarbons into the ocean at low rates for decades, resulting in cumulative damage to surrounding areas. The goal of this project is to advance capabilities for prevention and remediation of wellbore leakage in offshore hydrocarbon-producing wells. The project will develop and test new materials to improve or replace current materials used in the plugging and abandonment of wells and develop new methods for placing such materials.</td>
<td align="right" valign="top">$2,614,000</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top">University of Mississippi</td>
<td align="left" valign="top"><strong>Passive Acoustic Technique for Detecting, Locating, and Characterizing Hydrocarbon Leakages</strong><br />As offshore deepwater oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico continues to grow and expand, the risk of underwater oil spills resulting from both natural events and human accidents also increases. Real-time monitoring could help provide early detection of spills that is critical for minimizing impact. Existing monitoring techniques have significant limitations and cannot achieve real-time monitoring. This project launches an effort to develop a functional real-time monitoring system that uses acoustic technologies to detect, locate, and characterize undersea hydrocarbon leakages over large areas in a cost-effective manner.
</td>
<td align="right" valign="top">$591,000</td></tr>
<tr bgcolor="#e1e0f1"><td align="left" valign="top">Florida Maxima Corporation</td>
<td align="left" valign="top"><strong>Unobtrusive Assessment of Macrocognition Processes in Team Decision Making</strong><br />Workers in the offshore oil and gas industry operate in high-stress situations where faulty communication or decision-making can have severe consequences. This project aims to develop a tool that passively monitors and assesses verbal output in real-time communications to provide information on the cognitive states of speakers. This information could help with detection of issues that could affect decision-making processes and inform intervention and mitigation efforts to address those issues.</td>
<td align="right" valign="top">$788,000</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>The National Academies' Gulf Research Program is an independent, science-based program founded in 2013 as part of legal settlements with the companies involved in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. It seeks to enhance offshore energy system safety and protect human health and the environment by catalyzing advances in science, practice, and capacity to generate long-term benefits for the Gulf of Mexico region and the nation. The program has $500 million for use over 30 years to fund grants, fellowships, and other activities in the areas of research and development, education and training, and monitoring and synthesis. </p>
<p></body></p>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=gau_kt5KBvs:oOTU4ReBfdU:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/gau_kt5KBvs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171212-grp.htmlDOE: California has 15K+ EV charging units, 10% of which are fast chargerstag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01bb09df4f75970d2017-12-12T01:01:00-08:002017-12-12T09:01:00ZCalifornia has by far the most EV charging units of any state with more than 15,000 charging units (plugs)—10% of which are fast chargers, according to the US Department of Energy (DOE). About one-third of states have more than a...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>
California has by far the most EV charging units of any state with more than 15,000 charging units (plugs)&mdash;10% of which are fast chargers, <a href="https://energy.gov/eere/vehicles/articles/fotw-1007-december-11-2017-california-has-over-15000-electric-vehicle">according</a> to the US Department of Energy (DOE). About one-third of states have more than a thousand charging units; those states average 11% fast chargers.
</p>
<p>
Only seven states have fewer than 100 charging units, and two states have no fast charging units, but have level II chargers. As of 14 November 2017, there was a total of 47,886 level II and fast charging units in the United States.
</p>
<div align="center" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Total Number of Level II and Fast Charging Units per State, with Share of Fast Charging Units</b></div>
<p><a class="asset-img-link" href="http://bioage.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b7c93c415b970b-popup" onclick="window.open( this.href, '_blank', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0' ); return false"><img class="asset asset-image at-xid-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b7c93c415b970b img-responsive" style="width: 540px; border:0;display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" alt="Fotw1007" title="Fotw1007" src="http://bioage.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b7c93c415b970b-550wi" /></a><br /></p>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=FkL7ij7Jiac:S09pE_NK3x8:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/FkL7ij7Jiac" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171212-fotw.htmlRenewable-methanol fueled Geely cars in fleet testing in Iceland; 70% reduction in WTW CO2 compared to gasolinetag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b8d2c6842b970c2017-12-12T01:00:00-08:002017-12-12T09:00:00ZFor the last 18 months, a fleet of 6 methanol-fueled versions of the Geely Emgrand 7 cars have been in Iceland. Geely is a shareholder ($45.5-million investment in 2015) in Carbon Recycling International (CRI), an Icelandic company which produces renewable...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>
For the last 18 months, a fleet of 6 methanol-fueled versions of the Geely Emgrand 7 cars have been in Iceland. Geely is a shareholder ($45.5-million <a href="http://global.geely.com/first-geely-auto-methanol-vehicles-arrive-in-iceland/">investment</a> in 2015) in Carbon Recycling International (<a href="http://carbonrecycling.is">CRI</a>), an Icelandic company which produces renewable methanol using recycled CO<sub>2</sub> emissions sourced from a local thermal power plant and hydrogen made by splitting water with electrolysis (Power-to-Methanol). (<a href="http://www.greencarcongress.com/2015/07/20150708-geely.html">Earlier post</a>.)
</p>
<p>
The methanol fleet test is a collaboration between Geely, CRI and Brimborg, a local dealership and automotive service provider.
</p>
<p><a class="asset-img-link" href="http://bioage.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01bb09df3bf6970d-popup" onclick="window.open( this.href, '_blank', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0' ); return false"><img class="asset asset-image at-xid-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01bb09df3bf6970d img-responsive" style="width: 540px; border:0;display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" alt="SympGeely_bíll" title="SympGeely_bíll" src="http://bioage.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01bb09df3bf6970d-550wi" /></a><br /></p>
<p>
In the recently concluded first phase of the fleet test, the cars were driven roughly 150,000 kilometers (93,000 miles). Among drivers testing the vehicles were CRI staff and members of the Icelandic Automobile Association as well as several local service providers in the auto industry. The participants reported virtually no difference in driving experience compared to regular gasoline- or diesel-fueled cars.
</p>
<p>
The Geely Emgrand 7 is a mid-sized 4-door sedan similar in size to a Škoda Octavia or Toyota Corolla. It features a 1.8-liter, 127 hp engine which can run on both 100% methanol (M100) and gasoline. The version used in the fleet test has a 50-liter methanol tank as well as a 10-liter gasoline tank. The car starts with fuel from the gasoline tank and automatically switches to methanol once a preset temperature has been reached in the engine. The switch from gasoline to methanol is not noticeable to the driver.
</p>
<p>
As methanol is stable at a low temperature and therefore evaporates slowly&mdash;unlike gasoline&mdash;the two-tank solution was implemented to avoid any problems during cold starts. Geely is now working on a new design, eliminating the need for the small gasoline tank.
</p>
<p>
According to CRI’s Director of Sales and Marketing, Ómar Sigurbjörnsson, who managed the fleet test, the reported reduction in well-to-wheel (WTW) CO<sub>2</sub> emissions when driving with renewable methanol compared to gasoline was 70% on average (including all upstream manufacturing, distribution and tailpipe emissions for both the gasoline starter fuel and renewable methanol).
</p>
<blockquote><p><em>The average in-use emissions were calculated as 46 g CO2 per kilometer, accounting for the consumption of both fuels. Compared to gasoline or diesel methanol however offers much cleaner combustion, free of soot and emits no traces of sulphur or carcinogenic compounds which are formed in the combustion of liquid fossil fuels.</em><div align="right">&mdash;Ómar Sigurbjörnsson</div></p></blockquote>
<p>
According to Sigurbjörnsson, the data collected supports the conclusion that methanol fueled cars will also be economically competitive with both fossil fueled cars, hybrids and electric cars.
</p>
<p>
These positive results encourage CRI and its partners to engage in further development of renewable methanol use in vehicles. Planning for the next phase is already underway.
</p>
<p>
Methanol has been used as a racing fuel for many decades. Unlike methane gas and hydrogen, there is no need to install expensive infrastructure in order to store and distribute methanol as a fuel. Furthermore, cars such as the Geely Emgrand can be manufactured in the same facilities, using the same platforms as gasoline or diesel powered vehicles which reduces production costs compared to electric or hybrid vehicles. According to Mr. Sigurbjörnsson, methanol can also be used to generate electricity onboard using fuel cells.
</p>
<p>CRI’s current plant has a renewable methanol production capacity of 4,000 metric ton/year.</p>
<blockquote><p><em>Methanol which is produced with CRI’s method is one of the most environmentally friendly liquid fuels available today. It burns without soot and has a high octane number which enables car manufacturers to design lighter, powerful engines with more efficiency than can be achieved in the design of traditional gasoline or diesel engines. We are also participating in projects where our renewable methanol is already used to extend the range of battery electric cars and ferries.</em><div align="right">&mdash;Ómar Sigurbjörnsson</div></p></blockquote>
<p>
CRI has <a href="http://carbonrecycling.is/news/2017/12/7/cri-becomes-founding-member-of-new-eu-association-promoting-co2-utilization">joined</a> 42 other stakeholders from across the EEA region to launch CO2 Value Europe, a new European association dedicated to promoting CO2 utilization. CO2 Value Europe’s mission is to promote development and market deployment of sustainable industrial solutions that convert CO2 into valuable products, in order to contribute to the net reduction of global CO2 emissions and to the diversification of the feedstock base.</p>
<p>
The association was officially launched by the founding partners in Brussels on November 30, 2017. The founding partners of the Association include 10 large industrial corporations, 12 innovative SMEs and startups, 10 Research & Technology Organizations (RTOs), 6 universities and 5 clusters, ports and associations.
</p>
<p>
Geely developed the methanol version of the Emgrand for the Chinese market, where use of methanol is an automobile fuel has increased rapidly over the last few years. Several Chinese provinces and the municipality of Shanghai have adopted standards for methanol and gasoline blends. The most common blend contains 15% methanol and 85% gasoline.
</p>
<p>
Currently, China produces most of its methanol from coal. CRI now works closely with Chinese partners to build up a more environmentally friendly production facilities, using CRI’s proprietary CO<sub>2</sub>-to-methanol technology.
</p>
<p>
Last week, in collaboration with Geely Holdings and Zixin Industrial Co., CRI <a href="http://carbonrecycling.is/news/2017/10/24/joint-venture-formed-in-china">incorporated</a> a joint venture in China under the name CRI Ji Xin. The Shanghai-based company, which was registered in September 2017, will handle all sales and marketing in China, bringing the solution of CRI’s ETL (Emissions-to-Liquids) technology closer to potential adaptors in the Chinese energy sector. </p>
<p>
The foundation of a joint venture is a milestone for CRI’s operations, increasing its presence outside of Europe.
</p>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=a8L59oKBn4s:_cwEU6t-IKk:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/a8L59oKBn4s" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171212-cri.htmlSunLine orders five New Flyer fuel cell busestag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b8d2c69295970c2017-12-12T00:30:00-08:002017-12-12T08:30:00ZSunLine Transit Agency in California has awarded New Flyer of America—the US subsidiary of New Flyer Industries—with a contract for five Xcelsior fuel cell-electric forty-foot, heavy-duty transit buses. The new order, which was supported by the California Air Resources Board’s...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>SunLine Transit Agency in California has awarded New Flyer of America&mdash;the US subsidiary of New Flyer Industries&mdash;with a contract for five Xcelsior fuel cell-electric forty-foot, heavy-duty transit buses. The new order, which was supported by the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) Low Carbon Transportation and Air Quality Improvement Program, and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Low or No-Emission (Low-No) fund (<a href="http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/04/20170421-sunline.html">earlier post</a>), supports fleet expansion aligned to SunLine’s mandate to provide safe and environmentally conscious public transportation and alternative fuel solutions in the Coachella Valley. </p>
<p>Sunline already has five <a href="https://www.sunline.org/alternative-fuels/clean-fleet">fuel cell buses</a> in its operations. SunLine will also beupgrading its on-site hydrogen generation fuel infrastructure as part of this new project. </p>
<p></p>
<p>In its partnership with CARB, SunLine will be testing one full year of revenue service, measuring environmental impact and sustainability of the fuel cell powered heavy-duty transit buses. </p>
<p><p>SunLine Transit Agency provides public bus service in the Coachella Valley and Riverside-Downtown areas of California, and moves more than 3.5 million passengers per year. The NFI Group has over 50 years of experience in manufacturing zero-emission buses (ZEBs). </p>
<p>This project is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide program that puts billions of cap-and-trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy and improving public health and the environment&mdash;particularly in disadvantaged communities. The cap-and-trade program also creates a financial incentive for industries to invest in clean technologies and develop innovative ways to reduce pollution. California Climate Investments projects include affordable housing, renewable energy, public transportation, zero-emission vehicles, environmental restoration, more sustainable agriculture, recycling and much more. At least 35% of these investments are made in disadvantaged and low-income communities. </p>
<p>NFI Group and its subsidiaries comprise the largest bus and motor coach manufacturer and parts distributor in North America, with 32 fabrication, manufacturing, distribution, and service centers located across Canada and the United States and employing nearly 6,000 team members. </p>
<p>NFI Group provides a comprehensive suite of mass transportation solutions under several brands: New Flyer (heavy-duty transit buses), ARBOC (low-floor cutaway and medium-duty buses), MCI (motor coaches), and NFI Parts (bus and coach parts, support, and service). NFI Group’s vehicles incorporate the widest range of drive systems available, ranging from clean diesel, natural gas, diesel-electric hybrid, trolley-electric, battery-electric and fuel cell. </p>
<p>New Flyer actively supports more than 44,000 heavy-duty transit buses (New Flyer, NABI, and Orion) currently in service, of which 6,400 are powered by electric and battery propulsion.</p>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=TIqY1MzK9jw:pMnxJ8qygbo:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/TIqY1MzK9jw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171212-nfi.htmlMeritor makes strategic investment in TransPower to accelerate medium- and heavy-duty electrical vehicle platformstag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b8d2c6677c970c2017-12-11T06:48:58-08:002017-12-11T14:48:58ZMeritor, Inc., a leading global supplier of drivetrain, mobility, braking and aftermarket solutions for commercial vehicle and industrial markets, has made a strategic investment in TransPower, a provider of electrification technologies for large commercial vehicles. (Earlier post, earlier post.) Terms...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>
Meritor, Inc., a leading global supplier of drivetrain, mobility, braking and aftermarket solutions for commercial vehicle and industrial markets, has made a strategic <a href="http://investors.meritor.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=122961&amp;p=irol-newsArticle&amp;id=2321747">investment</a> in <a href="http://www.transpowerusa.com">TransPower</a>, a provider of electrification technologies for large commercial vehicles. (<a href="http://www.greencarcongress.com/2016/05/20160505-zevtrucks.html">Earlier post</a>, <a href="http://www.greencarcongress.com/2015/04/20150409-cec.html">earlier post</a>.) Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
</p>
<p>
California-based TransPower supplies integrated drive systems, full electric truck solutions and energy-storage subsystems to major manufacturers of trucks, school buses, refuse vehicles and terminal tractors. The company has been focused exclusively on developing electrical drive solutions for more than seven years.
</p>
<p>
With its investment in TransPower, Meritor expects to accelerate introduction of its flexible electric axle platform for various drivetrain configurations, including full electric, hybrid, single or tandem axles. Meritor’s lightweight carrier is designed for city-delivery, medium-duty and transit bus, as well as off-road and severe-duty applications.
</p>
<p>
TransPower’s electric drive solutions have been in daily use in commercial vehicles built by major OEMs with approximately 110,000 miles logged, according to Michael Simon, president and CEO, TransPower. The company also retrofits its electric drive solutions into existing vehicle platforms.
</p>
<blockquote><p><em>TransPower’s extensive knowledge and hands-on experience with electrical vehicle (EV) technologies and system integration gives us a significant competitive advantage in developing electrical drive systems for this evolving market this investment reinforces our commitment to deliver high-efficiency solutions for medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles supported by proven solutions.</em><div align="right">&mdash;Jay Craig, Meritor CEO and president</div></p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p><em>Meritor’s investment in TransPower could enable large-scale manufacturing of electric drive components and systems. Our expertise in systems engineering and controls for EVs complements Meritor’s strong brand and century of experience in designing and manufacturing drivetrain products for the commercial vehicle industry.</em><div align="right">&mdash;Michael Simon</div></p></blockquote>
<p></body></p>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=UJDtRKIkB_s:PgT5ZMMDeR8:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/UJDtRKIkB_s" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171211-meritor.htmlMitsubishi Motors, Indonesian Government to partner on EVs tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01bb09df0585970d2017-12-11T04:30:00-08:002017-12-11T12:30:00ZMitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indonesian Government under which it will work to expand the use and availability of electric vehicles in Indonesia. This partnership is in support of the Indonesian Government’s ambition...mmillikin<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>
Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) <a href="http://www.mitsubishi-motors.com/en/newsrelease/2017/detail1096.html">signed</a> a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indonesian Government under which it will work to expand the use and availability of electric vehicles in Indonesia. This partnership is in support of the Indonesian Government’s ambition to encourage the development of electric vehicles as part of its strategy to reduce CO<sub>2</sub> emissions.
</p>
<p>
Measures will include the Government exploring the potential for new policies and incentive programs to encourage drivers and manufacturers to adopt electric vehicles.
</p>
<p>
Both the Indonesian Government and Mitsubishi Motors will also work together to conduct a joint study to examine the efficient usage of electric vehicles in Indonesia.
</p>
<p>
Mitsubishi Motors will make an immediate contribution to the transition of Indonesia to a low carbon economy by providing 10 electric vehicles and four charging units to the Indonesian Ministry of Industry (MOI) and a range of other organisations, including national universities and research institutes.
</p>
<p>
Mitsubishi Motors entered the Indonesian market 46 years ago, and earlier this year opened a new factory in Bekasi Prefecture. The factory plans to provide more than 3,000 jobs and has the capacity to produces 160,000 vehicles a year.
</p>
<p>
With the opening of the Bekasi plant, Indonesia has become a major production hub for MMC and is now at the heart of its work across the entire ASEAN region.
</p>
</div><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=YiA-RUlVYgA:oYjMIcS7Eko:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/YiA-RUlVYgA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171211-mmc.htmlPorsche reports ~60% of new Panamera models delivered in Europe are with plug-in hybrid drive; ramping up for Mission Etag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b7c93bfd7a970b2017-12-11T03:30:00-08:002017-12-11T11:30:00ZPorsche reports that around 60% of all new Panamera models that have been delivered in Europe were equipped with a hybrid drive. The new Panamera plug-in hybrid models were launched on the European market in June 2017. The Panamera plug-in...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>
Porsche <a href="https://presse.porsche.de/prod/presse_pag/PressResources.nsf/Content?ReadForm&amp;languageversionid=807439&amp;pid=709629F6E5CAEE80C1257321008060F6">reports</a> that around 60% of all new Panamera models that have been delivered in Europe were equipped with a hybrid drive. The new Panamera plug-in hybrid models were launched on the European market in June 2017. The Panamera plug-in hybrids (Panamera 4 E-Hybrid and Panamera 4 E-Hybrid Executive) have a purely electric range of up to 50 kilometers (31 miles). (<a href="http://www.greencarcongress.com/2016/10/20161001-porsche.html">Earlier post</a>.) The Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid flagship model delivers exceptional performance and maximum efficiency, with a four-liter V8 engine and an electric motor generating a system power of 680 hp. (<a href="http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/09/20170926-porsche.html">Earlier post</a>.)
</p>
<p>
In some countries, the proportion of Panamera hybrids is even higher. In France, for example, the figure is 70%, in Austria it is more than 80% and in Belgium it is even more than 90%. In Norway, 90% of all Panamera customers order a hybrid model, while in Finland the figure is 85%. “<i>Electromobility is the future</i>,” Albrecht Reimold, Member of the Executive Board for Production and Logistics at Porsche AG, said at a presentation of the new Panamera plug-in hybrid models.
</p>
<p><a class="asset-img-link" href="http://bioage.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01bb09df0950970d-popup" onclick="window.open( this.href, '_blank', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0' ); return false"><img class="asset asset-image at-xid-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01bb09df0950970d img-responsive" style="width: 540px; border:0; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" alt="S17_3344_fine" title="S17_3344_fine" src="http://bioage.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01bb09df0950970d-550wi" /></a><br /></p>
<div align="center" style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid</div>
<p>
Preparations are underway in Zuffenhausen for the production of Porsche’s first purely battery-powered sports car, the Mission E. The vehicle will have a range of 500 kilometers (311 miles) and will sprint from 0 to 100 km/h in less than 3.5 seconds. (<a href="http://www.greencarcongress.com/2015/12/20151104.html">Earlier post</a>.) Using fast charging, it will be possible to charge its battery by 80% in just 15 minutes. “<i>It is the most ambitious project we have ever taken on</i>,” says Member of the Executive Board for Production and Logistics, Albrecht Reimold.
</p>
<p>
Porsche is investing around €1 billion (US$1.2 billion) in the Mission E project, around €700 million (US$824 million) of which will go towards the production facilities at the headquarters in Zuffenhausen. A new paint shop, dedicated assembly area and an 800-meter-long conveyor bridge for transporting the painted bodies and drive units to the final assembly area are being constructed there. The existing engine plant is being expanded to manufacture electric drives. The existing body construction will also be expanded. A total of 1,200 new jobs are being created. There will also be additional investments related to this, for example in the Weissach development center.
</p>
<blockquote><p><em>Sustainability is the foundation of our company management. Resource-efficient production methods are of the highest priority for Porsche, and are also being factored into the restructuring of our traditional plant in Zuffenhausen for the production of the first purely electric Porsche. Our goal is to achieve CO<sub>2</sub>-neutral production. We are completely on schedule. The Mission E will be on the market by the end of the decade.</em></p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p><em>We are already thinking about derivatives of the Mission E. We are also planning additional purely electric vehicles and investigating relevant segments. We are working with Audi on a joint electric vehicle architecture for the long-term future.</em><div align="right">&mdash;Albrecht Reimold</div></p></blockquote>
<p>
The Porsche Engineering subsidiary also developed a fast charging system. With a voltage of 800 volts and a charging rate of up to 320 kWh, “Porsche Turbo Charging” ensures high charging performance and short charging times even in a heterogeneous network infrastructure.
</p>
<p>
Furthermore, Porsche and Audi are representing the Volkswagen Group in IONITY, a joint venture with the BMW Group, Daimler AG and Ford Motor Company. The goal of this venture is to construct and operate 400 powerful fast charging stations along the major European traffic routes by 2020. (<a href="http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/11/20171103-ionity.html">Earlier post</a>.) Construction of the first stations will get underway before the end of the year. In addition to IONITY, the Porsche dealer network is becoming part of a nationwide rapid charging infrastructure, which will gradually be equipped with 800-volt charging technology. The expansion of Porsche’s internal charging infrastructure for electric vehicles is also in full swing: 66 charging pedestals with 109 charging points will be put into operation as part of the initial phase of construction at the sports car manufacturer’s sites.
</p>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=wN7AY_d1iI8:ml9Olb97ZzE:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/wN7AY_d1iI8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171211-porsche.htmlVolkswagen Truck & Bus RIO digital platform goes livetag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b7c93bf749970b2017-12-11T03:30:00-08:002017-12-11T11:30:00ZVolkswagen Truck & Bus has gone live with its open, cloud-based RIO digital services platform, announced at the IAA Commercial vehicles show in 2016. (Earlier post.) Customers can now register on the RIO platform and use the first available service,...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>
Volkswagen Truck & Bus has gone <a href="https://www.volkswagen-media-services.com/en/detailpage/-/detail/Volkswagen-Truck--Buss-digital-brand-RIO-launches-own-platform/view/5966679/7a5bbec13158edd433c6630f5ac445da">live</a> with its open, cloud-based RIO digital services platform, announced at the IAA Commercial vehicles show in 2016. (<a href="http://www.greencarcongress.com/2016/09/20160921-rio.html">Earlier post</a>.) Customers can now register on the RIO platform and use the first available service, RIO Essentials, free of charge.
</p>
<blockquote><p><em>The going live of RIO is a path-breaking step in the implementation of our digital strategy. With RIO, Volkswagen Truck & Bus will make the world of transport more efficient and more transparent. That is why the cloud-based RIO platform is open for other brands and for new partners. Our industry is undergoing a fundamental change, and we will be actively shaping this transformation.</em><div align="right">&mdash;Andreas Renschler, CEO of Volkswagen Truck & Bus and the Volkswagen AG Board Member responsible for commercial vehicles</div></p></blockquote>
<p>
Through digitization and connectivity, transport and logistics are being made more efficient and the transport flow is optimized. This will help to improve the sustainability of the growing volume of goods transport.
</p>
<p>
For every vehicle registered, RIO Essentials supplies precise information round the clock on mileage, fuel levels, and driver identification, as well as an extensive performance analysis. The RIO Essentials services can be accessed not only by MAN vehicles with RIO Box, but also by other vehicles with RIO Box, regardless of system and vehicle manufacturer.
</p>
<p>
From January 2018 onwards the RIO Box can be retrofitted in all vehicles with FMS interface. This will make RIO especially suitable for fleets with vehicles of different brands.
</p>
<p>
Since August 2017 every MAN truck delivered in Europe has had the RIO Box with access to the RIO platform as a standard feature. The Scania, Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brands and the strategic partner Navistar will in future also be using the RIO platform&mdash;with a potential of more than 650,000 networked vehicles worldwide. RIO will be launched initially in German and English, but in future ten languages will be available, including French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, and Spanish.
</p>
<p>
RIO is thus paving the way to a networked supply chain that will make transport and logistics more efficient for customers and consumers. RIO plans to expand its service portfolio continually.
</p>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=lo8tdugGVeg:fmF0UKVfQYY:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/lo8tdugGVeg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171211-rio.htmlZITY car sharing launches in Madrid with 500 Renault ZOE EVs arriving this monthtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01bb09df08c8970d2017-12-11T02:59:00-08:002017-12-11T10:59:00ZA fleet of 500 all-electric Renault ZOE superminis will be arriving in Madrid this month with the car-sharing service ZITY, the result of a cooperation between Renault and the urban services operator Ferrovial. (Earlier post.) This new car-sharing scheme covers...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>
A fleet of 500 all-electric Renault ZOE superminis will be <a href="http://www.newspress.co.uk/ViewPressRelease.aspx?pr=75316">arriving</a> in Madrid this month with the car-sharing service ZITY, the result of a cooperation between Renault and the urban services operator Ferrovial. (<a href="http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/08/20170831-zoe.html">Earlier post</a>.) This new car-sharing scheme covers a wide area of the Spanish capital. Madrid has the highest rate of daily car-sharing in Europe due to the city’s size, population, traffic problems and air pollution issues.
</p>
<p>
At times of intense air pollution, electric vehicle parking in Madrid is free; EVs are still permitted access to the city center at times when entry restrictions on internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles are at their most drastic. In June 2018, Madrid’s “Hyper-center” will be permanently out of bounds to ICE vehicles. These conditions led to Renault and Ferrovial to sign an agreement in August to launch ZITY.
</p>
<p><a class="asset-img-link" href="http://bioage.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01bb09df05f2970d-popup" onclick="window.open( this.href, '_blank', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0' ); return false"><img class="asset asset-image at-xid-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01bb09df05f2970d img-responsive" style="width: 540px; border:0;display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" alt="500 Renault ZOE on streets of Madrid with ZITY car sharing scheme (2)" title="500 Renault ZOE on streets of Madrid with ZITY car sharing scheme (2)" src="http://bioage.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01bb09df05f2970d-550wi" /></a><br /></p>
<p>
The ZOEs in the scheme benefit from RIDECELL technology with a GSM smartphone connection completed by a Bluetooth link. That means the ZOE can be contacted even in places where connectivity is poor, such as underground car parks, and the time taken for the vehicles to respond to smartphone instructions sent by customers is reduced. RIDECELL also lets customers lock and unlock the cars using their smartphones.
</p>
<p>
With the new 68 kW, 225 N&middot;m R90 motor and Z.E.40 battery (41 kWh), ZOE’s range is 250 miles/400 km (NEDC). Renault estimates that in real-world driving conditions that this equates to around 186 miles (300 km) in summer and 124 miles (200 km) in cold winter conditions.</p>
<p>ZOE Z.E.40 can charge from zero to 80% full in as little as 65 minutes with its Chameleon Charger that allows it to make the most of the widest range of power supplies and also keep charging times to a minimum. The Chameleon charger, patented by Renault, can adapt to the available power supply&mdash;whether single or three-phase&mdash;from 3kW up to 43kW.</p>
<p>
The basic concept of the Chameleon is to divert the motor and inverter from their role in providing traction so that they can also contribute to charging the battery. The charging process is managed by the junction box, a new Renault-developed sub-system which changes the AC current to DC and communicates with the charging station. The unit is only slighter larger and heavier than the 3kW charger found on most other electric vehicles, but with its inverters and motor windings, it allows charging power to reach 43kW.
</p>
<p>
ZOE is equipped with a charging cable that can accept power levels between 3kW and 22kW. It is connected to the car using a socket on the front of the car, which can be unlocked using the hands-free card or a switch to the right of the steering wheel. Fast-charging stations (43kW) have their own built-in cable that is connected to the car.
</p>
<p>Renault’s Range OptimiZer technology ensures ZOE is highly efficient with its heat pump, a bi-modal braking system and Michelin ENERGY E-V tires.
</p>
<p>
ZOE was the first model to be equipped as standard with Renault R-Link, an integrated, connected multimedia system that gives easy access to wide range of information, communications and entertainment functions through its 7-inch touch screen. These include navigation, radio, telephone, Bluetooth audio streaming, music, portable device connection and connected services. </p>
<p>
On ZOE, R-Link provides a number of features dedicated to electric vehicle driving, such as the range bubble on the TomTom Z.E. LIVE navigation system, with a radius determined by the vehicle’s remaining range. When the driver enters a destination, the system will indicate whether the vehicle
has sufficient charge to make the journey. If not, it will give directions to a convenient charging point on the way. It can also suggest the most economical routes in terms of energy use and display charging stations close to the vehicle’s location, or at its destination.</p>
<p>
R-Link is connected to the vehicle’s ECU, enabling further new functions. Drivers can monitor their car’s energy consumption in real time, or the energy flow between the battery and the electric motor, air conditioning and heating.
Once they have arrived at their destination, drivers can assess their eco-driving performance using the Driving eco2 function, which analyzes the driving style and gives tips on how range and efficiency might be improved.
</p>
<p>
ZOE is the best-selling electric vehicle in Europe; more than 4,500 ZOEs have been sold since launching in the UK. ZOE is one of four models in Renault’s diverse all-electric vehicle range, which also includes the Twizy quadricycle, the Kangoo Van Z.E.33 and the forthcoming Master Z.E. large panel van.
</p>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=Vnb9HywJl_Y:pT1RoBHBxns:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/Vnb9HywJl_Y" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171211-zity.htmlAntenna company Airgain joins 5G Automotive Associationtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b8d2c64cfe970c2017-12-11T02:30:00-08:002017-12-11T10:30:00ZAntenna technology company Airgain, Inc. has become a member of the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA). The company joins leading telecommunications and automotive companies with the aim of accelerating the penetration of the connected and autonomous car and intelligent fleet management....mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>
Antenna technology company Airgain, Inc. has <a href="https://prnmedia.prnewswire.com/news-releases/airgain-joins-the-5g-automotive-association-662539143.html">become</a> a member of the 5G Automotive Association (<a href="http://5gaa.org/">5GAA</a>). The company joins leading telecommunications and automotive companies with the aim of accelerating the penetration of the connected and autonomous car and intelligent fleet management.
</p>
<p>
Airgain believes it can play an important role in the connected vehicle market by providing antenna technology in support of advanced wireless connectivity solutions for in-vehicle, vehicle-to-vehicle, and vehicle-to-infrastructure applications. It brings to the association a portfolio of connectivity solutions and experience in developing antenna applications for government, public safety, and enterprise applications.
</p>
<blockquote><p><em>For the potential of 5G to be realized in the automotive industry, collaboration and development of ecosystems are fundamental. This is how we will achieve real progress with the connected and autonomous car. We are looking forward to working with leaders in the automotive industry, and believe our expertise will help accelerate industry innovation in vehicle connectivity.</em><div align="right">&mdash;Alberto Bonamico, Business Development Director, Automotive at Airgain</div></p></blockquote>
<p>
The 5GAA was established in September 2016. The association is developing, testing and promoting communications solutions, supporting standardization and accelerating commercial availability and global market penetration.
</p>
<p>
Airgain is headquartered in San Diego, California, and maintains design and test centers in San Diego, Phoenix, Arizona, Cambridge, United Kingdom, and Suzhou and Shenzhen, China.
</p>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=xPqCTt4Z5-w:EIk-lfZe2Co:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/xPqCTt4Z5-w" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171211-airgain.htmlTwo-stage catalytic fast hydropyrolysis of biomass produces biofuel with heating value, aromaticity close to gasolinetag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b7c93bf4a6970b2017-12-11T02:00:00-08:002017-12-11T10:00:00ZA team at the University of Connecticut Storrs reports on a two-stage catalytic fast hydropyrolysis process (CFHP) that produces a drop-oin biofuel with heating value and aromaticity close to that of gasoline. Their paper is published in the journal Fuel....mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>
A team at the University of Connecticut Storrs reports on a two-stage catalytic fast hydropyrolysis process (CFHP) that produces a drop-oin biofuel with heating value and aromaticity close to that of gasoline. Their paper is published in the journal <i>Fuel</i>.</p>
<p>The two-stage CFHP followed by hydroprocessing produced nearly 18 mol% carbon yield to alkanes, and a total bio-oil carbon yield of 25 mol%. The approximate bio-oil higher heating value (HHV) and aromaticity were 43.4 MJ/kg and 28 wt%, respectively&mdash;both within the range of gasoline.</p>
<p><p></p>
<p>
Biomass fast pyrolysis thermally decomposes the feedstock using high heating rates and intermediate temperature (typically 400–600°C) under an inert atmosphere. Under these conditions, the polymeric cellulose, hemi-cellulose and lignin fractions of the biomass fragment to form volatile bio-oil products, in addition to char and permanent gas. The bio-oil product is an unstable mixture of low-energy oxygenated hydrocarbons, which must be upgraded prior to use as a transportation fuel.
</p>
<blockquote><p><em>… low bio-oil yields, carbon loss to solids and permanent gas, as well as low bio-oil heating value are major obstacles, which must be minimized in order to make the fast pyrolysis process viable. Moreover, a substantial majority of hydrocarbons formed from CFP are aromatic in nature, while traditional gasoline typically contains about 25 wt% aromatics.</em></p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p><em>… Raw biomass is rich in oxygen, some of which is removed as water, CO and CO<sub>2</sub> after pyrolysis alone. The bio-oil may then be upgraded over an acid catalyst to form a more stable blend of aromatic hydrocarbons and low levels of oxygenates. However, due to the hydrogen depleted environment during pyrolysis, even the most deoxygenated bio-oil has an atomic H:C ratio of about 1, which more closely resembles the H:C ratio of coal, rather than a typical petroleum blend. Hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) must be performed on the upgraded bio-oil to improve higher heating value (HHV), remove remaining oxygen heteroatoms and bring the total H:C ratio closer to 1.75.</em></p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p><em>… substantial work is still necessary to maximize HDO catalyst effectiveness, reduce process energy intensity and limit overall hydrogen consumption. In this work, we explore the feasibility of catalytic fast hydropyrolysis (CFHP) as a means to circumvent this cycle, and produce high returns of renewable alkanes and aromatics from lignocellulosic biomass in a single- or two- step catalytic process.</em><div align="right">&mdash;Gamliel <i>et al.</i></div></p></blockquote>
<p>
CFHP is the catalytic pyrolysis of biomass at a high heating rate under a pressurized hydrogen atmosphere. The hydrogen in the CFHP reactor increases carbon efficiency by shifting the reaction pathway from decarbonylation and decarboxylation to dehydration, thus removing oxygen in the form of water. Inclusion of a ZSM-5 catalyst in the CFHP reactor assists in pyrolysis vapor deoxygenation and char reduction, while the presence of a transition metal, such as Ni or Ru may assist in hydrogenation and HDO reactions.
</p>
<p>
To understand the factors that drive CFHP product selectivity towards true drop-in fuel compounds&mdash;i.e., a blend of aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons&mdash;the researchers performed CFHP with anisole, a common bio-oil model compound, at a range of operating conditions. They proposed and tested two process modifications to overcome the thermodynamic barrier for hydrogenation in the context of CFHP vapor upgrading: reduction of the heating rate; and CFHP followed by second-stage hydroprocessing (CFHP-SH).
</p>
<p>
Lowering the heating rate resulted in increased alkanes selectivity, but low overall bio-oil yield and high solid yield. CFHP-SH produced the very high alkane yield noted above, with the gasoline-range HHV and aromaticity levels.
</p>
<p><b>Resources</b></p>
<ul><li><p>David P. Gamliel, George M. Bollas, Julia A. Valla (2017) “Two-stage catalytic fast hydropyrolysis of biomass for the production of drop-in biofuel” <i>Fuel</i> <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2017.12.017">10.1016/j.fuel.2017.12.017</a></p></li></ul>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=xWxlKfNIYE4:3lhbEe5MyqM:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/xWxlKfNIYE4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171211-uconn.htmlEuropean Parliament, Council and Commission reach agreement on vehicle type-approval; EU oversighttag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b7c93bf59a970b2017-12-11T01:30:00-08:002017-12-11T09:30:00ZLast week, the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission reached a political agreement to raise the quality level and independence of vehicle type-approval and testing; to increase checks of cars that are already on the EU market; and to...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>
Last week, the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-5131_en.htm">reached</a> a political agreement to raise the quality level and independence of vehicle type-approval and testing; to increase checks of cars that are already on the EU market; and to strengthen the overall system with European oversight.
</p>
<p>
Under current rules, the EU sets the legal framework but national authorities are fully responsible for checking car manufacturers’ compliance. Once a car is certified in one Member State, it can circulate freely throughout the EU. Only the national authority that type approved a car can take remedial action such as ordering a recall and imposing administrative penalties in case of non-compliance. The Commission was already reviewing the EU type-approval framework for motor vehicles prior to the Volkswagen revelations in September 2015. It then concluded on the need for more far-reaching reform to prevent cases of non-compliance from happening again, which it proposed on 27 January 2016.
</p>
<p>
The EU co-legislators reached an agreement on that January 2016 proposal to overhaul fully the EU type-approval framework.
</p>
<blockquote><p><em>With tighter rules which are policed more strictly, the car industry has the chance to regain consumers’ trust. Just a few weeks after the Commission’s clean mobility proposals, today’s agreement marks yet another milestone in the EU’s wider efforts to reinforce our car industry’s global leadership in clean and safe vehicles.</em><div align="right">&mdash;Jyrki Katainen, Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness</div></p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p><em>Dieselgate has revealed the weaknesses of our regulatory and market surveillance system. We know that some car manufacturers were cheating and many others were exploiting loopholes. To put an end to this, we are overhauling the whole system. After almost two years of negotiations, I welcome that the key elements of our proposal have been upheld, including real EU oversight and enforcement powers. In the future, the Commission will be able to carry out checks on cars, trigger EU-wide recalls, and impose fines of up to €30,000 per car when the law is broken.</em><div align="right">&mdash;Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska, responsible for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs</div></p></blockquote>
<p>
The main building blocks of the new rules are:
</p>
<ul><li><p><b>Raise the quality level and independence of type-approval and testing before a car is placed on the market.</b> Technical services will be regularly and independently audited, on the basis of stringent performance criteria, to obtain and maintain their designation by a Member State for testing and inspecting new car models. The Commission and other Member States will be able to challenge a designation when something is wrong.</p><p>
National type-approval authorities will be subject to Commission audits to ensure that the relevant rules are implemented and enforced rigorously across the EU. The Commission’s proposal to modify the remuneration system to avoid that technical services are paid directly by the manufacturer was not maintained.
</p>
</li>
<li><p><b>Increase checks of cars that are already on the EU market.</b> While the current type-approval rules deal mainly with <i>ex ante</i> controls of prototypes taken from the production line, in the future Member States will have to carry out regular spot-checks on vehicles already on their market and such results will be made publicly available. All Member States will now be able to immediately take safeguard measures against non-compliant vehicles on their territory without having to wait for the authority that issued the type-approval to take action, as is currently still the case.</p></li>
<li><p><b>European oversight.</b> In the future, the Commission will carry out market checks independently from Member States and will have the possibility to initiate EU-wide recalls. It will have the power to challenge the designation of technical services, and to impose administrative penalties on manufacturers or technical services of up to €30,000 per non-compliant car.</p><p>
The Commission will lead a new enforcement forum to ensure a more uniform interpretation of relevant EU legislation, complete transparency on cases of non-compliance, and better and more coordinated market surveillance activities by Member States.
</p>
</li></ul>
<p>
The new Regulation maintains the current ban on defeat devices, which national authorities have a standing obligation to police and enforce, but goes a step further. In the future, car manufacturers will have to provide access to the car’s software protocols. This measure goes hand in hand with the Real Driving Emissions package, which will make it very difficult to circumvent emission requirements and includes an obligation for manufacturers to disclose their emissions reduction strategies, as is the case in the US.
</p>
<p>
The preliminary political agreement reached by the European Parliament, Council and Commission in trilogue negotiations is now subject to formal approval by the European Parliament and Council. The Regulation will then be directly applicable in all Member States and will become mandatory on 1 September 2020.
</p>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=pLqZH2fPd8E:tTmlcILhPxU:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/pLqZH2fPd8E" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171211-typeapproval.htmlFleet of 10 BYD electric buses operating on Okinawatag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b7c93bf277970b2017-12-11T01:30:00-08:002017-12-11T09:30:00ZA fleet of 10 battery-electric buses manufactured by Chinese new energy technology company BYD started operating on the Japanese island of Okinawa, marking the beginning of the island’s electrified public transportation initiative. 10 BYD K9 buses now run a shuttle...mmillikin<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>
A fleet of 10 battery-electric buses manufactured by Chinese new energy technology company BYD started <a href="http://www.byd.com/news/news-426.html">operating</a> on the Japanese island of Okinawa, marking the beginning of the island’s electrified public transportation initiative. 10 BYD K9 buses now run a shuttle service to and from the Okinawa Naha Port. BYD is the only Chinese automaker to enter the Japanese market, and only with pure electric vehicles.
</p>
<p><a class="asset-img-link" href="http://bioage.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01bb09deff40970d-popup" onclick="window.open( this.href, '_blank', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0' ); return false"><img class="asset asset-image at-xid-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01bb09deff40970d img-responsive" style="width: 540px; border:0;display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" alt="201712010356451232" title="201712010356451232" src="http://bioage.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01bb09deff40970d-550wi"></img></a><br></p>
<p>
This is not the first time BYD has delivered its e-buses to Japan. In 2015, five BYD K9 buses started running in the city of Kyoto. This time, Japan placed the additional order to operate the K9 fleet in the historic city of Okinawa, which hosts millions of visitors each year.
</p>
<p>
BYD’s electric vehicles currently are deployed in more than 200 cities across 50 countries and regions.
</p>
</div><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=rZU1jJyDO_A:8KnRu0nVSeA:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/rZU1jJyDO_A" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171211-byd.htmlResearchers in Japan propose a more efficient method to reduce radioactive waste; fast reactor system shortens the lifetime of LLFPstag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01b7c93be7c7970b2017-12-11T00:59:00-08:002017-12-11T08:59:00ZA team of scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) working in collaboration with Tohoku University, Tokyo City University and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency has proposed a novel, more efficient method to reduce radioactive waste. Their approach involves...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>
A team of scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) working in collaboration with Tohoku University, Tokyo City University and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency has <a href="https://www.tohoku.ac.jp/en/press/fast_reactor_system.html">proposed</a> a novel, more efficient method to reduce radioactive waste.
</p>
<p>Their approach involves converting radioactive material into short-lived nuclides by absorbing surplus neutrons in the core peripheral portion of a small fast reactor faster than they are generated in the core. The new method, published in an open-access paper in <i>Scientific Reports</i>, could significantly reduce the effective half-life (an indicator of the amount of time it takes to bring radioactive materials down to safe levels) of long-lived fission products (LLFPs) from hundreds of thousands of years to within a hundred years. </p>
<p>
Long-lived fission products (LLFPs) are radioactive materials with long half-lives produced by nuclear fission.
</p>
<p>
The disposal issue concerns what to do with radioactive waste after uranium and plutonium have been recovered from spent nuclear fuel using reprocessing methods such as Plutonium Uranium Redox EXtraction (PUREX).
</p>
<p>
Although burying waste deep underground is widely viewed as the most viable option, a number of strategies are being explored to reduce the stockpile of depleted fuel. One of the most promising is the partitioning and transmutation (P&T) strategy. This involves separating fuel into minor actinides (MAs) and LLFPs followed by the transmutation of MAs and LLFPs into shorter-lived nuclides.
</p>
<p>
Minor actinides are elements synthesized in nuclear fuel other than uranium and plutonium, such as neptunium, americium and curium. Transmutation is a change induced by neutron capture that results in the conversion of LLFPs to short-lived or non-radioactive nuclides.
</p>
<p>
So far, the P&T strategy has been limited by the costly and cumbersome need to separate LLFP isotopes before they can undergo transmutation. Also, some LLFPs, owing to their small neutron capture cross sections, are not able to capture enough neutrons for effective transmutation to occur.
</p>
<p>
The new study led by Satoshi Chiba at Tokyo Tech shows that effective transmutation of LLFPs can be achieved in fast spectrum reactors without the need for isotope separation. By adding a moderator (or slowing-down material) called yttrium deuteride (YD<sub>2</sub>), the team found that LLFP transmutation efficiency increased in the radial blanket and shield regions of the reactor. The researchers say that this is due to the moderator’s ability to soften the neutron spectrum leaking from the core.
</p>
<p>
Chiba and his co-workers focused on six LLFPs: selenium-79, zirconium-93, technetium-99, palladium-107, iodine-129 and caesium-135. Calculations showed that the effective half-lives of these LLFPs could be drastically reduced so that total radiotoxicity at long cooling time domain will be efficiently reduced.
</p>
<p>
In experiments of this kind, the support ratio (that is, the ratio of the transmutation rate to the production rate) is an important indicator of transmutation efficiency. The team showed that support ratios of more than 1.0 were achieved for all six LLFPs tested, representing a significant improvement on previous findings.
</p>
<p>
Using their method, the researchers say that the 17,000 tons of LLFPs now in storage in Japan could potentially be disposed of using ten fast spectrum reactors. Their method also has the advantage of contributing to electricity generation and supporting efforts towards nuclear non-proliferation.
</p>
<p><b>Resources</b></p>
<ul><li><p>
Satoshi Chiba, Toshio Wakabayashi, Yoshiaki Tachi, Naoyuki Takaki, Atsunori Terashima, Shin Okumura & Tadashi Yoshida (2017) “Method to Reduce Long-lived Fission Products by Nuclear Transmutations with Fast Spectrum Reactors” <i>Scientific Reports</i> 7, Article number: 13961 doi: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-14319-7">10.1038/s41598-017-14319-7</a></p></li></ul>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=GaivzaQrZHw:AYsZdO0Q2MM:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/GaivzaQrZHw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171211-llfp.htmlDOE to award up to $30-60M for advanced nuclear energy technology in FY 2018; $400M over 5 yearstag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c4fbe53ef01bb09debe88970d2017-12-10T03:30:00-08:002017-12-10T11:30:00ZThe US Department of Energy (DOE) has released a funding opportunity announcement (DE-FOA-0001817) to support development of advanced nuclear energy technology. DOE expects to make up to approximately $30 million to $60 million—contingent upon the availability of funds appropriated by...mmillikin
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has released a funding opportunity announcement (<a href="https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/search-grants.html?keywords=DE-FOA-0001817">DE-FOA-0001817</a>) to support development of advanced nuclear energy technology. DOE expects to make up to approximately $30 million to $60 million&mdash;contingent upon the availability of funds appropriated by Congress&mdash;available in FY 2018 awards, subject to the availability of funding.</p>
<p>The FOA will be open for a five-year period accepting applications on a year-round basis, with a quarterly selection process. Additional funding will be available in future years, as allocated by Congress. Total estimated program funding over the five years is $400 million, again contingent upon Congress.
</p>
<p>
The Department of Energy (DOE) is soliciting proposals for cost-shared projects to develop innovative, industry-driven reactor designs and accompanying technologies with high potential to advance nuclear power in the United States. The investment is intended to accelerate development of these designs and technologies so that the existing domestic fleet of nuclear power plants remains viable and the most mature new, advanced US designs can be deployed as early as mid-to-late 2020s, and be globally competitive.
</p>
<p>
Funding will be provided from the Department of Energy (DOE) through multiple existing nuclear energy programs currently conducting innovative research and development (R&D) activities supporting the existing fleet and the development of new and next-generation reactor designs and technologies.
</p>
<p>
Work supported by the funding may include:</p>
<ul><li><p>Development of technologies that improve the capability of the existing fleet;</p></li>
<li><p>Methods to improve the timelines for advanced reactor deployments;</p></li>
<li><p>The cost and schedule for delivery of nuclear products, services, and capabilities supporting these nuclear technologies;</p></li>
<li><p>Design and engineering processes; and</p></li>
<li><p>Resolution of regulatory/certification issues potentially impeding the introduction of these technologies into the marketplace.</p></li></ul>
<p></p>
<p>
Technical topical areas may include, but not limited to, innovations and improvements in:
</p>
<ul><li><p>Advanced nuclear reactor designs, including small modular reactors of various technology types;</p></li>
<li><p>Engineering, analyses and experimentation that would address first-of-a-kind reactor design,
certification, and licensing issues;</p></li>
<li><p>Advanced manufacturing, fabrication and construction techniques for nuclear parts, components, and
full-scale plants, or integrated efforts that could positively impact the domestic nuclear manufacturing
enterprise;</p></li>
<li><p>Sensors, instrumentation and control systems;</p></li>
<li><p>Plant auxiliary and support systems;</p></li>
<li><p>Operational inspection and monitoring capabilities;</p></li>
<li><p>Modeling and simulation of various elements of plant life cycle;</p></li>
<li><p>Procedures, processes, and methodologies that can impact operational efficiencies;</p></li>
<li><p>Integration of nuclear energy into micro-grid, non-electric, and/or hybrid applications;</p></li>
<li><p>Other components, systems, processes, or capabilities, including dynamic convection technologies, that
could result in performance and economic improvements in advanced nuclear reactor designs; and</p></li>
<li><p>Efforts to address regulatory and licensing issues with the NRC.</p></li></ul>
<p><p>
The FOA defines three separate funding opportunity pathways: First of a Kind Nuclear Demonstration Readiness Projects; Advanced Reactor Development Projects; and Regulatory Assistance Grant and Technology Development Opportunities.</p>
<p>
<b>First of a Kind Nuclear Demonstration Readiness Projects.</b> This pathway provides opportunities for the development of a broad range of nuclear projects that are expected to result in operational improvements of the existing fleet, or the deployment of new, innovative designs. The Department defines “deployment” for the purposes of new plant designs as a state where a plant has been constructed and is operational.
</p>
<p>
The pathway will provide support for one or more advanced reactor projects that have the potential to be deployed by the mid-to-late 2020s. The pathway is open to any advanced reactor design or technology that has a rational and achievable plan to meet these goals.
</p>
<p>
<b>Advanced Reactor Development Projects.</b> This application pathway is expected to lead directly to advances in the innovation and competitiveness of a broad set of domestic nuclear reactor designs and technologies. The scope of the FOA is purposely very broad to allow US industry stakeholders to request Government support for applications involving concepts and ideas that they believe are best suited to improving the capabilities and commercialization potential of advanced reactor designs and technologies.</p>
<p>Awards for these projects will be made in the form of cost-shared cooperative agreements with a nuclear industry partner, with provisions for appropriately selected team members as subrecipients.
</p>
<p>
<b>Regulatory Assistance Grant and Technology Development Opportunities.</b> A new opportunity for regulatory support to US industry is available through this FOA. Cost-shared grants will be awarded for applicants seeking funds in support of work with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to resolve design regulatory issues, to review topical reports or papers, and other efforts focused on obtaining certification and licensing approvals. </p>
<p>One element of this grant pathway will be to help US industry to bring capabilities and expertise together to address the challenges and opportunities associated with the regulatory environment.
</p>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?a=FCSuPgkjM0M:4oJqefpEOIo:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/greencarcongress/TrBK?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/greencarcongress/TrBK/~4/FCSuPgkjM0M" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://www.greencarcongress.com/2017/12/20171210-nuclear.html